My To Don’t List

Elizabeth Willis Barrett……………November 2020

There is so much I want to do and I used to think that life would be long enough to do everything.  Fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty years seems like an interminable amount of time, after all.  But now that I am definitely in life’s second half, or more like life’s fourth quarter, I see that I must cull my To Do List and relegate many items to the list of To Don’ts.

A lot of things started out on my To Don’t List, like tennis, archery, snow skiing, roller coastering, sky diving or for that matter, anything that even hints of adventure.  (I would really like to apologize to the poor kid who had to follow me on the Park City Alpine Slides because I kept my brake on most of the time and he did not get a run for his money.)  (Add that to all the apologies on my To Do List that I hope to make some day to those I have offended or could have treated better.)

I have had to move some very desirable items from the To Do-s to the To Don’ts because time isn’t stretching like I assumed it would.  In fact, time seems to have gathered itself up into shrinkage. For instance, there is no spare time to learn fiddling, machine quilting, Spanish or master gardening.  

Since travel isn’t at the very top of the things I want to do, I have given up thoughts of visiting Italy, the Holy Land or Iguazu Falls.  I might not be able to fit in spending a couple of weeks in an English countryside as is depicted in the series “Midsomer Murders” or going for a sleigh ride in the Connecticut snow.  

Some incidentals were emphatically moved to my To Don’t List like dangly earrings, mid-calf skirts, asking someone if she is pregnant and making political comments on Facebook.  Each was tried with bad results. 

I’m still working at getting some other time consuming activities over to the To Don’ts.  Envy, self doubt, moodiness, pessimism, discouragement—these have been a little more stubborn in their willingness to move.  

The more items I can shift to the To Don’t side, the more precious time I will have for the very important, invaluable To Do-s.  

Is there anything you need to move to your To Don’t List?  Now’s the time!