You Know What I Love? That and That and That too.
A fickle heart knows endless joys, but so does a collector’s
I was never much of a Sound of Music fan, but I always loved These Are a Few of My Favorite Things. The idea of listing what you love: what could be better? All tucked away safe, in one place, everything you adore. Splendid.
I spent a lot of my childhood listing and ranking things. Favorite Garfield cartoons, favorite Doctor Who episodes, favorite chapters of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, favorite places to hang out… the lists were endless.
And I’d really wrestle with them, too.
I recently wrote an all-grown-up list of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, and the process nearly stalled me out. I loved remembering the episodes, but having to choose which was more important to me than the others? That was extremely difficult.
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But why do we list?
Why do we take joy in gathering together the things that bring us more joy?
What is this strange recursive process we go through?
I can’t answer for anyone else, but perhaps some of this reasoning will ring a bell for you.
- I list joys so that I can feel rich. It’s as simple as that, on one level. I just want to gather my gold pieces together and count them.
- I collect and rank my experiences so that I don’t lose or misplace or forget them. What a sad thing that would be! There has to be a way to fight against being of little brain. Perhaps it’s mnemonic devices.
- I shuffle together my happinesses so that they intermingle. Maybe introducing them will lead to more happiness, or even more.
- I tuck away my loads of treasure so they’ll be there when I need them. I wouldn’t want to forget them just as they were most needed in my life.
How do you take stock of your best people, places, and things? Do you use a gratitude journal? Make a point of thanking people when they’ve helped you? Try to pay it forward? Make wishes on superstitious stuff for more good things?
Go ahead and list five methods you could use to tap into the power of listing joys in the next week. I’ll wait below.
- One:
- Two:
- Three:
- Four:
- Five:
(Thanks Medium for some very awkward formatting. But you get the idea!)
Got them? What’s your favourite?
- The best one:
Go ahead and do that today. You’ll be glad you did.
Joys numbered are joys kept. It doesn’t matter if you change your mind on ranking later. Just the process of putting them down on paper is an excellent start.
I hope you are inspired to print out this page and fill in the blanks above. It could be the start of something wonderful.
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