Lists

One of the benefits of having a daughter who is 8 turning 9 is that we have the chance to read all kinds of wonderful books together.  It has also led me to rediscover the books of my childhood (and I was a big reader and lover of books who had the most wonderful librarian mother, so we read some wonderful things).  I'm always on the lookout for old pleasures and since doing used book sales seems to be very "in" at schools right now, it gives me many chances to scrounge old books.  I found an old favourite a few weeks ago.

In the last ten or so years, list making, especially gratitude list making has become a really popular thing to do.  I think I first head about it when Oprah embraced Sarah Ban Breathnach's book Simple Abundance and everyone was supposed to write down three gratitudes each evening.  As someone who loves nothing more than a blank notebook, of course, I jumped on that train.  Then, along came Ann Voskamp and One Thousand Gifts, again, embracing the idea of recording gratitudes.  This was another book that I loved and I started yet another notebook.  At our last booksale, I realized that my list making goes back much further than either of these two authors.

When I was around ten (I can't remember exactly), I stumbled across the book Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry.

 I don't remember much about the book other than that she was a list maker and she always had lists going of things that she liked and hated.  That was when my list making habit was born and I loved those books.  I found one on the table at the book sale and I had to grab it!  It's not a classic by any means, unlike many of the others that Pk and I share (that's another post) but given that Pk already seems to share my love of notebooks and jotting down ideas and thoughts, I hope that she will love Anastasia the way that I did.  Going back and browsing my lists can be so much fun - reminding me of the little pleasures that so often get left behind in the frenzy of daily life, especially those connected to the changing seasons.  Part of being present is watching for those little pleasures and keeping these lists goes a long way to help me to keep my eyes open!

Are you a list keeper?  Do you try to keep gratitude or other lists?