Inventory #BlogElul Day 2

This is about how long I last on any diet...getting over the hurdle to turn an occasional practice into a habit is a real challenge for me!

The theme for today is inventory - as an organizational freak this is something I can easily connect with. I find I get great pleasure about making order out of chaos. It is a way of bringing calm to me by calming my environment. And I find it a way of connecting to the Divine - after all in Genesis 1 the whole world is created by bringing order to chaos.

So I am a list maker, and yes, I add things on to my list just to check them off. I have moved from the paper version to an electronic one, but I selected a program that allowed me to see the things that I had marked off. It was a way to visually take stock of what I had accomplished during a day.

But if I am looking to an inventory of a longer period of time, longer than a day, or longer than a week, it becomes more complicated. This is a situation where the total is much more than the sum of its parts. When we reflect on a year, there is so much more than just what we did each day. More to evaluate than what we accomplished.

And certain important things never make it on to the to-do list. I can't remember writing to call my mom on my list, or chat with my brother. What about friendships that need attention? Or spouses that need support. If someone else were to look at my to-do list, what would it say about who I am and what is important to me? Would I like that?

[Just looked at my to-do list for today - and while I am excited to check off "write blog," it is 90% things I need to do for work, 5% a family friend that I need to remember to contact (because I might forget), and 5%, well, writing this blog.]

My hope is that Elul can be an opportunity to make sure the things that I put on my list are indeed important and that I don't become defined by the more mundane tasks that I take care of every day. Better go put that on my to-do list!