Day in the Life

I made a list today oh boy!

I hear a Beatles song coming on…wasn’t it ‘I heard the news today’ from A Day in the Life? Yes, I looked that one up just yesterday. Something about holes in the road in Blackburn, Lancashire and the Albert Hall. Amazing what you learn about those old songs. I’m no happier and a bit wiser for knowing the connection between Blackburn and the Albert Hall. It’s interesting to know what the source of my youthful singing and humming pleasure was. A newspaper article about holes in the road and how much material it would take to fill them, enough to fill the Albert Hall.

Anyway. I made a list today and worked not so much through it as around, up and down it, now it’s a scribbled out mess. I resort to making lists as a last resort. I find lists basically oppressive but necessary just in order to remember what needs to be done. When there is a lot to be done. Like today. Already I see how disjointed my thinking has become as I write. Lists do it to you. There is help at hand though. Here’s how to stop making lists and get a life.

Go ahead take a look, there is life after lists. A more fun loving one.

For your information I’ll be away from the monastery for a couple of weeks from Wednesday. First stop Telford Buddhist Priory and then onwards to our temple in the Black Forest in Germany. Posting might become irregular, or they might not.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

5 thoughts on “Day in the Life”

  1. I make lists cause I like the look of them, but ultimately life gets on with it and I may or may not get the list checked off. Safe trip, Mugo.

  2. My partner makes lists all the time…and we always laugh, I never make lists…and who usually forgets to put something in their luggage or buy something from the supermarket? Not me! :0) It would be nice to meet you in person when you are here in Germany…unfortunately I’ll be arriving at the temple the day after you leave…but I wish you all the best in your two weeks of travel! By the way mornings before the sun comes up, before meditation, it is very beautiful as you go out the door from the kitchen…wooded hills and stars…and then later in the morning as the sun comes out and the valley fog lifts, there are always herons waiting and watching. Having their own morning meditation…or simply having an eye at the trout ponds further down the valley. Jack

  3. My memory has become so poor I need lists for everyday errands. The lists mentioned through the link have always made me wonder though – strange how some of these ‘answers’ to ‘successful’ or ‘happy’ lives are so often in 10 steps! How is it that other people seem to think they have ‘the answer’ for me?
    The other difficulty I have with them is that they assume we all know exactly ‘what we want’ – I never have known & no longer think it’s a good way to go anyway.

  4. As a person who is always in combat with his habit of procrastination – lists have no place here. However there are always those things that I know have to be done – no matter how much angst there is attached to them. Just feel which is the most pressing ones each day and try my best to do them. A few a week seems to keep the never ending pile from overwhelming…and some just seem to disappear on their own!

  5. Richard. Thanks for writing. And to the rest of you too.

    I find lists helpful when there are so many ‘loose ends’ to deal with that I get caught up in them constantly. This happens particularly when I’m preparing to travel. It seems good to clear the decks. Who knows what might happen while on the road. And there is the ever present possibility of death of course. So returning borrowed books and the like looms as important in the big scheme of things.

    Thanks for your well wishes for my travels. Yes, and sorry not to meet you Jack on this visit. Perhaps you will come over to England next year some time.

Leave a Reply to Angie Pedley Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.