All week I’ve been meaning to call a friend. I hate forgetting. It’s not that I really forget though. It’s that other things become prominent in my mind. Things I need to do. Whether it’s getting groceries, doing chores, writing letters, or making phone calls, I always have a tic list – in my purse and in my mind – and am constantly referring to it and checking off what I have accomplished. What I don’t get done, either gets moved to a new list for the following day or week; or left off my list because at the end of a long day, it no longer seems so important. Things happen. Priorities change. And, all of a sudden, or maybe all along, I’m a different person with a new perspective. I tweak my list and life goes on.

I was talking to another friend. She was telling me how much it bothers her when she forgets to do something, whether it is to send a birthday card to a relative or to get the car washed. I was in a hurry, so I only listened, not offering my thoughts on the subject. I wanted to say that we all have good intentions. We mean well. We plan our days and our time, and then life happens. Something else grabs our attention or becomes our primary focal point. We can’t help it. There’s always too much to do. For the busy person, they are always tackling that written or mental list. For the not so busy person, they are either living in guilt or have reached the point that we each get to in our own way and time. The one where we realize that life goes on and no one is going to hold it against us for failing to get the card in the mail or pick up the drycleaning – but ourselves, that is.

At that point, we come to realize what is important. We drop the insignificant things off our list. Our lists become more about life and love rather than just a checklist of things to get done. Like those who have figured it out already, we slow down, stop rushing here and there so much, and take time to get that card in the mail. It’s a little thing, but in the scheme of things it’s a big thing to the receiver and ultimately to us – the giver. Good intentions. They count. Life happens. It’s gonna. But when good intentions make life happen, well, all that other stuff – on the to-do list – becomes just that. All that remains is the good stuff.