winter lists on a thursday morning.

Lists are so dear to me partially because they're unique to the moment you wrote them. From grocery lists of avocado and bacon (sandwiches must be for lunch) from to-do-lists detailing the day (run in the morning, school in the afternoon, piece time together for coffee around three). Snapshots of the ephemeral minutes caught in loops of italics or squat letters. There's a coffee stain on that page, dried crumply, and the smudges of books I want to read leaked down the page. I pasted my movie ticket from staying up till three on that one above a scrawled to-do-list, written sloppily in the curves of no sleep. And like flowers in my hair, flipping pages in my journal back to June reveal smaller lists that smell like summer. Walk to Caribou. Run through the sprinkler and act like I'm seven, at least once. Make root beer floats. All accomplished.

The "here-now" of these lists tug my heart, and I see some crossed off, others standing bold and waiting to be done. Wintertime is very much different from summer, and similar pages covered with plans read much like a song. Make soup for dinner, wild rice and chicken. Bundle up before a walk, remember a scarf. Buy more chai, we're out. Shovel the driveway after it's finished snowing. If I was a poet I would write a piece but for now, I'll catch syllables between rhythms and round the rhymes into letters half between cursive and print that range from words between clean my room and buy a birthday gift for Chloe. And yet, there's pieces caught between the lines, like a fish darting through reeds. My line is cast and I sit quietly in a boat alongside my family, holding my pole tight and waiting to snag words. I'm a fisher woman of stories and stories in all forms, from photos to books to music to drawings to designs to the halfway letters of a list not finished. I collect the discarded grocery lists in the bottom of my purse, the leftover pages of a packing list for Texas crumpled in the back of my suitcase, a few hurried lines of to-do before dinner barely written before begun.

There's a beauty and grace to the change of seasons and the differences that come in our homes and hearts within them. Winter is for quiet and abundance of simple, friends and family gathered together. If we had a hearth, ours would be lit. I'm sucker to the romantic and pretty things but will not disregard the simple, because honesty is the best. Lists fifteen to twenty three, all before lunch.

things that catch my eye.
light
hands
quirks
wispy curls
steam and smoke and fog
reflections
dabs of color
continuity errors in movies
textures

books I'm reading.
Leavings by Wendell Berry.
Vivian Maier - Street Photographer
Journey of a World Changer by Banning Liebscher
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak(never not)
The Bible
Love Does by Bob Goff.

a (few) songs that I could hear over and over again.
This Love Won't Break Your Heart by Annalise Emerick.
Love you More by Misty Edwards.
Mile Marker by Amy Seeley
Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.
Something in the Water by Brooke Fraser.
After the Storm by Mumford & Sons.
Yellow by Coldplay.
We Bought a Zoo by Jonsi.
100 Years by Five for Fighting.
Somewhere Only We Know by Keane.
Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright.
Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men.

things I don't want to purchase (but need to anyways).
a haircut.
an external harddrive.
new shoes for this year's wedding season.
memory cards.
new jeans.

what I want to get better at this year.
going to bed early.
giving grace (always).
making my bed.
being intentional with my time.
eating healthier.
affirming.
creating art that matters.
baking gluten free.
punctuality.
self portraits.

some things I'm excited about.
weddings this year. (!!!)
traveling plans.
being healthy.
the weekend.
going shopping for food.
making banana "ice-cream" later today.
new projects.

names I like.
scout.
plum.
james.
aubrey.
birdy.
jovie.
walter.
bethy.
lauryn.
danny.

plans for the rest of the week.
take a walk.
go out for lunch &or coffee.
finish work before saturday.
make a cake for Chloe's birthday.
mail letters.
finish my moleskine.
get my inbox cleaned.
tidy my room & declutter & simplify.
have a chick-flick / movie night with chloe.

outside my window.
white Christmas lights dangling on the empty branches of our tree.
an acrylic sky painted blue.
snow on roofs.
a snowy yard crisscrossed with footprints from boots.
sunlight warm across the neighborhood.
a half finished snowman.
quiet.