The TO DO List

How we spend our days, is, of course, how we spend our lives.  – Annie Dillard

Find out who you are, and do it on purpose.  – Dolly Parton

The secret of life is butter.  – Julia Child

Be in gratitude every day.

Exercise.

Laugh.

Get a flu shot.

The first three resonate so deeply with me, I keep writing them on each new page of my weekly calendar.  To remember.  To use as a guide to keep me focused on what’s important.

The last four are what I wrote on the first page of my brand new writing tablet, the TO-DO list started the week after receiving my cancer diagnosis.  I was going to be so organized about having cancer… well, that didn’t work out at all how I expected, but it was a place to start.  Bearing some semblance to a plan, or rather, as much of one as I could get my head wrapped around at that moment.  I found other instructions in my journal – a new journal to accompany me on a new journey… that of being a cancer patient.

Follow your heart.

Conserve your energy.

Learn how to coexist with uncertainty.

Breathe.

Embrace the YOU you are now.