Lifelines

In my 26 years, I have learned that it is dangerous, though necessary, to put our trust in anything other than The Almighty. Vehicles break down and leave us stranded. Televisions lose sound without notice. Ovens burn our dinner (no, this is not something we blame on the chef). Computers fail...daily. However, I have found there is one thing in my home upon which my very existence is dependent. I could live without just about all the other objects, except for this one. Its my planner.

My love affair with this delightful tool began in high school. I enjoyed writing down assignments, keeping track of appointments, and making notes to myself. It was fun, but something I only really did during the really boring classes. Then came college. They actually provided planners with all the college sponsored activities already printed in them. I found keeping track of assignments, tasks, meetings, events was more important than ever. The times I didn’t do a good job of it resulted in times of late work, missed meetings and unimpressed acquaintances. I learned value in writing down minute details of every day. Even now, looking back at these college planners is entertaining (yes, I still have them). I wrote down EVERYTHING. What movie we watched. Who was at what party. How bad classes were. Each and every day details exactly what I did and how I felt about it.

Nowadays my planner serves slightly different purposes. Gone are the days of entries such as "Grilled cheese at the SUB" or "Ran to SUB for candy". Instead I have "Dr. appointment - 7:00" or "praise team practice - 7:00" or "laundry". It isn’t the same journal of fun that it used to be. Instead it is journal of real life. You see, I need this in order to get through the week. Each week has my to do list, my appointments, my notes, etc. Each morning I open my planner, check off the items I did on my to do list, take note of appointments, make sure its no one’s birthday. And each morning I feel just a little more sane and relaxed knowing that everything in life that was important was detailed somehow in my planner. If its not in there, it might as well be part of
someone else’s world - because it won’t be part of mine.

Granted there are always things in life that you can’t PLAN. There will always be last minute changes. There will often be things that I completely forgot to write down in the first place. There will be times when even the best laid plans go to waste for various reasons. But having this planner affords me a strange misguided peace about life. I can look back, read between the lines and find that in all the boring everyday occurrences, special things have happened.