Ta Dah - or "Have Done" lists - have been a mainstay of my daily existence since deciding that I am merely me and what I do is write. Everything else seems to come into some sort of self-organising hierarchy of tasks under "WRITE".
Eating - for sure.
Self-care - could probably do more
Shopping, cleaning, buying (mainly new pencils, pens, paper, notebooks...)
and so on.
The list under the heading "WRITE" is as long as it feels like being at any given time.
The Old Boy is back, his slippers over-shod with galoshes, having been zoomed to the Writing Playground by playful Curiosity, without so much as a "by your leave".
It's the East Portal that he's pushed, pulled and powered his way through this time. Not, by an manner of means, anything like the two doored silently smooth ease of access he enjoyed last time. The East Portal is single doored, rusted of both key in its mortice lock and bolts on its doors. What he's found himself looking at - a monumental totem of finger posts each clamouring to be the way taken to the making of a mindful list - has frankly, on top of feeling fragged by the efforts made in breaching the portal door and by the intense heat of the Rising Sun burnishing his back, tripped into a listless frame of mind.
He stands still awhile, as is his way, looking West across the Playground determined not to dare to turn about and look East for fear of eyeballs being blinded. He's thinking what's the wordplay to be today?
He's thinking what if I don't work-up a creative response to whatever this mid-January morning's challenge is? Will I be allowed to get back to wherever it is and doing whatever it is that I was doing when I got zoomed up and deposited where I am now?
"Flow" he says aloud, followed by "go", aware that a Smile of Relief has decided to break out across his face. "I'll go with the flow" he calls as if in answer to an unasked question, "I'll leave a list of pairings of phrases that have truck and stuck with me over the past week... "here we go phrases written with poetic intent that give rise to possibilities as fresh as they are many:
Ants lead lions into battle / Praise be to the most high.
Flies feast / Another way,
Treachery flashes / Goodbye my friend.
Anger twinges at the heart of my soul / In broad daylight.
As I stand in the annals of civilisation / I am.
The heretic spoke / Of the dictatorship.
"Yes" he muses aloud to himself, "I like the symmetry of these six paired phrasings, a set of six silos from which to ignite and launch new creative writing endeavours..."
Old Boy was threatening to get into his stride but Curiosity was already well satisfied and not a word more was uttered by the Old Boy who'd in a trice that was shorter than the blinking of an eye back through the disappearing East Portal and been ushered at Zoom Speed back to wherever it was he had come from to continue doing whatever it was that he was doing. He did smile wryly, in looking down at the galoshes on his slippered feet, thinking that you never can tell whether you'll find yourself needing everything that you bring to the Writing Playground or just some single spark to kindle a story into being with 😮
The six paired phrasings have layers and dimensions that create a maze in the imagination of the reader/writer. A good one to ponder about in the list of lists post is “a listless frame of mind.”
Ponder could take you one way (i.e. Old Boy is prone to episodes of listless depression) or another way (i.e. Old Boy is uncertain as to how, having turned up without a ready to hand list, to turn a twist in the context of 'The List of Lists Show' he has been zoomed into being centre stage of in The Playground Theatre... until he resolves to work a "get me out here" turn by summoning, out of the ether, recollection of something he was, as it so happens, working on elsewhere earlier in the just passing week).
✍ summoned to hand, without further to do with pondering, the 🗝 to progress is to write on, regardless whether the concern of present writing is recording a list of gift items on a shopping receipt 🧾 or marking-up lines of your latest sonnet for close reading and line editing 📑 ahead of speaking it loud and proud in first public performance 🎭
Unpopular opinion- I don't like lists 🤣 I hold myself TOO accountable and then I'm fixated only on the lists and forget live and feel joy. I like the idea of "to be/to feel" lists, these might work as in to more of smth that makes me happy/motivated.
I loved the post very creative way to approach the topic!
And grocery lists are the best!! Money and time savers!!
And I can create a list on why I don't like lists 🤣
I love your list of lists! Perfect writing inspiration 🙏
Ta Dah - or "Have Done" lists - have been a mainstay of my daily existence since deciding that I am merely me and what I do is write. Everything else seems to come into some sort of self-organising hierarchy of tasks under "WRITE".
Eating - for sure.
Self-care - could probably do more
Shopping, cleaning, buying (mainly new pencils, pens, paper, notebooks...)
and so on.
The list under the heading "WRITE" is as long as it feels like being at any given time.
Do you see things under Write list as invitations or obligations?
Invitations - sometimes to a party, sometimes just to pop in and have a cuppa.
I used to see To Do list items as obligations and they often varied the undertones of "not having done my homework" etc. But not now.
With great age comes great irresponsibility.
The last sentence could be a poster. 🙂
Loving this points of a Ta Da list or a to Feel list. I love lists, it helps me reminding me what to do, to cross things off and feel acomplished.
I am most consistent with gratitude lists. I don’t mind that things repeat.
I keep a gratitude journal, makes me value the small stuff even more now I have been doing this for over a year. Love it
The Old Boy is back, his slippers over-shod with galoshes, having been zoomed to the Writing Playground by playful Curiosity, without so much as a "by your leave".
It's the East Portal that he's pushed, pulled and powered his way through this time. Not, by an manner of means, anything like the two doored silently smooth ease of access he enjoyed last time. The East Portal is single doored, rusted of both key in its mortice lock and bolts on its doors. What he's found himself looking at - a monumental totem of finger posts each clamouring to be the way taken to the making of a mindful list - has frankly, on top of feeling fragged by the efforts made in breaching the portal door and by the intense heat of the Rising Sun burnishing his back, tripped into a listless frame of mind.
He stands still awhile, as is his way, looking West across the Playground determined not to dare to turn about and look East for fear of eyeballs being blinded. He's thinking what's the wordplay to be today?
He's thinking what if I don't work-up a creative response to whatever this mid-January morning's challenge is? Will I be allowed to get back to wherever it is and doing whatever it is that I was doing when I got zoomed up and deposited where I am now?
"Flow" he says aloud, followed by "go", aware that a Smile of Relief has decided to break out across his face. "I'll go with the flow" he calls as if in answer to an unasked question, "I'll leave a list of pairings of phrases that have truck and stuck with me over the past week... "here we go phrases written with poetic intent that give rise to possibilities as fresh as they are many:
Ants lead lions into battle / Praise be to the most high.
Flies feast / Another way,
Treachery flashes / Goodbye my friend.
Anger twinges at the heart of my soul / In broad daylight.
As I stand in the annals of civilisation / I am.
The heretic spoke / Of the dictatorship.
"Yes" he muses aloud to himself, "I like the symmetry of these six paired phrasings, a set of six silos from which to ignite and launch new creative writing endeavours..."
Old Boy was threatening to get into his stride but Curiosity was already well satisfied and not a word more was uttered by the Old Boy who'd in a trice that was shorter than the blinking of an eye back through the disappearing East Portal and been ushered at Zoom Speed back to wherever it was he had come from to continue doing whatever it was that he was doing. He did smile wryly, in looking down at the galoshes on his slippered feet, thinking that you never can tell whether you'll find yourself needing everything that you bring to the Writing Playground or just some single spark to kindle a story into being with 😮
The six paired phrasings have layers and dimensions that create a maze in the imagination of the reader/writer. A good one to ponder about in the list of lists post is “a listless frame of mind.”
Ponder could take you one way (i.e. Old Boy is prone to episodes of listless depression) or another way (i.e. Old Boy is uncertain as to how, having turned up without a ready to hand list, to turn a twist in the context of 'The List of Lists Show' he has been zoomed into being centre stage of in The Playground Theatre... until he resolves to work a "get me out here" turn by summoning, out of the ether, recollection of something he was, as it so happens, working on elsewhere earlier in the just passing week).
✍ summoned to hand, without further to do with pondering, the 🗝 to progress is to write on, regardless whether the concern of present writing is recording a list of gift items on a shopping receipt 🧾 or marking-up lines of your latest sonnet for close reading and line editing 📑 ahead of speaking it loud and proud in first public performance 🎭
Unpopular opinion- I don't like lists 🤣 I hold myself TOO accountable and then I'm fixated only on the lists and forget live and feel joy. I like the idea of "to be/to feel" lists, these might work as in to more of smth that makes me happy/motivated.
I loved the post very creative way to approach the topic!
And grocery lists are the best!! Money and time savers!!
And I can create a list on why I don't like lists 🤣
Please create the “Why I don’t like lists” and share here. 😁
I like the idea of a ta-da list. I might use that one with my work team.
It might also be helpful to say “Ta-dah” with gusto once the list is finished.😀
Love your take on this.
I have always been a fan of lists. But lately I find I want less lists, less to do. So maybe i should write a list on how to get rid of lists 😂
Anyway, thought I’d share a few of my list posts 😎
DONE LIST
https://mirandavandenheuvel.substack.com/p/why-you-need-a-done-list
100 things I love list
https://mirandavandenheuvel.substack.com/p/make-a-100-things-you-love-list
To stop list
https://mirandavandenheuvel.substack.com/p/how-a-to-stop-list-can-improve-your
Favorite books of 2024 list
https://mirandavandenheuvel.substack.com/p/mirandas-favorite-books-of-2024
Here’s to lists when they bring joy. Here’s to skipping lists when they don’t serve us. 🙂
I love your Toad poem ;-)