An “I am List,” Overlaps, and Year Lists
A list posted at Instagram, the scavenger hunt of Illustrate Your Week, and year lists.
[This post is part of this Simply Sunday roundup.]
Looking for Overlaps
I wrote a simple “who I am” list this week (posted at Instagram). There have been a number of account problems at Instagram recently, and I saw a video from someone whose account was hijacked, and one of the methods for retrieving it involved sending in selfie videos. In this person’s case, the videos didn’t help, and the conjecture was that there were not enough photos (of her) on her channel to help corroborate her identity. I thought about that and about how many of us mostly show our pages and, in our videos, just our hands. So, I posted a selfie.
Snapping the photos was easy. But I had to think about the list.
The list itself was easy.
But, as you might imagine, I ran out of space.
Feeling cramped by the small Instagram box and tired of the “Your caption is too long” message was one of the things that really pushed me here and back to sharing long-form writing.
I thought about the list throughout the day. I wrote it. I added to it. I deleted lines. I wrote the most honest things at the end, and then I took them all out. I debated about what I did and didn’t include, what I deleted, what I trimmed, what I said and didn’t say. I felt like there were so many other things that could have been added. It felt so generic, and yet, all of those things are true to me. They all go together to make a composite, along with all the other things not included.
I pasted things in, and it was still too long. I struggled to get enough chopped out to make it work — and several days later I realized that one of the key lines had gotten mangled, partially deleted, and that a core line about drawing portraits had disappeared from the same section. Frustrating!
I asked anyone who read the list to leave a comment on what we have in common, on overlaps. I had been watching A Million Little Things. This group of people who are always there for one another, who don’t just “leave” when things are a mess, it’s such a mystery to me. (I finished the series this week, and it was heartbreaking.)
The whole list is succinct, long, but succinct in the simplicity of each line, little statements dropped into place, fragments, threads, a beautiful oxymoron, succinct and too long. Everything rings true. But this line stuck out for me….
“I share weekly #illustrateyourweekprompts, which I started because they help me make a scavenger hunt of each week (and of the past)”
(It turns out this is the line that got mangled and truncated. It isn’t there now because there isn’t room.)
The line sums up so much of what Illustrate Your Week is about. People keep journals and diaries and planner notes in hundreds of ways. But when it is time to illustrate our days, many of us simply “don’t know what to draw,” and many of us feel we live lives that are so routine and so ordinary that there is nothing to draw. How many times can we draw our chair? Our coffee cup? How can we capture all the thoughts we have while sitting and looking out the window? How can we express feeling stuck or worried or afraid or determined, hopeful, or excited when most days look, on the surface, very much the same?
We are all familiar with stunning, beautiful visual journal examples that capture life out and about, beautiful places, buildings, foods, storefronts, vistas, new things, the undercurrent of life in action. Things are more “still” for me. How many times can we draw our chair? Our hand? What if we look around our space and don’t find it “drawable”? Comfortable, yes, but drawable?
When I first started writing prompts, it was to help nudge people (including myself) to think about, record, and look for certain things to help deconstruct the routine. The prompts went through several iterations. At one point, they had two parts…. prompts and a scavenger list, a list of things to “find” in the week to record or illustrate. Over time, that evolved into one weekly set.
Looking at each week as a scavenger hunt works for me. Maybe it can help you, too. Maybe it can help you see the magic in the mundane.
Year Lists
Another line that stands out for me is about the year lists….
“I sometimes gamify life with lists that help break up my routine.”
Often, when we get into a groove with a habit, we think it will be forever. Habits, unfortunately, are easily lost. Sometimes, we cycle around again and again and remember and affirm a habit or practice that we really want to reclaim, something we might miss or that we know was good for us. A year list is one of those things for me. It was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever done, and though I tried to set up a list in a few of the years since, they didn’t stick in the same way. Maybe it is simply because it really is hard to keep up momentum sometimes on our own.
I am going to try again this year, a new list for this new year.
It may be that the list will have some of the same things as the last one. My circumstances haven’t improved. If anything, we are more limited now. I won’t be going anywhere amazing. But even having those same things on the list may force me to break out of this cocoon of fear and waiting. I know it’s a good thing. I know it can be an energizing thing. And maybe I’ll document it again.
I don’t believe in bucket lists. I just don’t think they have any place in my life. But simple lists that make me revisit a place or drive down a street I’ve never been to, or deal with parking to go somewhere local I haven’t been in years …. These lists can be powerful catalysts. They do help gamify the living. (In case you are wondering, I try to keep most of the list free.)
I started making the list one day this week, and it quickly started feeling like goals and tasks. Year-list making is different. A good mix requires a balance, a sprinkle of whimsy, a dash of foresight, a pinch of challenge, a whiff of adventure, and plenty of flexibility. It’s a game. What will you do each week? What sounds fun? What can you check off the list?
There are a few podcasts related to this…. several from the 50 Before 50 year, but the first one probably sets the stage. There was a show about a birthday day list I did with my mom a few years ago. I think day lists can be very good. They are a proactive way of sorting out what you would like to do on a special day… and then making it happen.
I think life lists like these can be really effective. They can be fun when done with others, too.
Do you set up an annual list, either for the birthday year or the calendar year? (A popular calendar year approach would be something like 23 for 2023. A birthday year list might take the shape of x before x, slotting in the age you will be next year. Or, you might choose a random number, like 20 for x.
What five things would immediately go on your list?
See also:
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