Where Does Your List Lead?

I look at the checkmarks
on the screen with prideful eyes.
Yes, I can be a killer agent,
a task master, an amazing manifestor.
I can come to the chopping block
with sharpened ax and steady intent.

Big outcomes come out of little acts;
and the tiny effort I apply today
yields amazing results tomorrow.

Still, my soul weeps
over the bones of elephants,
those memory keepers
of the heart’s desire,
who died as I chased them
from their wild habitat,
clearing the land and tilling the soil
for my own tamed and tethered life.

My to-do list both
holds me hostage
and sets me free.

I know my future depends on it,
but I also recognize that the future
I build may or may not be
the world my heart desires.

My to do list gives me
a list of things to do,
but it does not tell me
who I am, how to be,
or what I love. And this
is the deeper question:

Does my list of to-do’s
lead to what I love?

I have a habit of keeping a very long to-do list and many items carry over from day to day. This can easily lead to judging myself as lazy. I often come to the end of a day and wonder what I accomplished. This is the plight of work on the mental and emotional plane, where results are often not as apparent as they are with physical labor. Even the results of my writing remain hidden in the circuitry of a computer; and my Facebook postings and email blog often seem to go unnoticed by the world. I work in a sheltered enclave, in my little home office, hammering away at....what? This is the question today's daily intent raises:

Does my to-do list lead
to what I love?

List Blog Entry

This poem is adapted from my daily intent writing practice, and this entry is posted in my blog. Click here to read it: