Putting painting on the list

Gallery Tea

Watercolour and marker

6 x 9.5

Barbara Muir © 2013

My mother's memorial is this weekend -- a celebration
of life.  I just had a call from a friend in Los Angeles
who is a wonderful artist, and she encouraged me to
remember the celebration part of the memorial.  I
assured her that my short talk will celebrate my
mother's life, how could it not?

But I may not get to talk about the list.  I have been
lost since my mother's death -- sad to a level I can
rarely remember feeling. But of course I was that
sad when my father died too.  Here's the point -- the
sadness shunted me off my practice of making a daily
list.  It's a supremely simple but great practice.  If
I make a list, the things on it get done.

And it hit me -- that even though I essentially learned
list making through articles, and books, and a course
I taught which included time management -- my mother
was a tremendous list maker.  She was a doer.  And
when I'd call her up on Saturday and Sunday mornings,
she'd have accomplished so many tasks by 10 in the
morning, that I'd feel like a slacker by comparison.

So yesterday, in the midst of all the turmoil of
arranging for her memorial, I wrote a list.  Anchored
by that again, I am getting things done.  And on the list
is starting a painting.  So I have. This is a grey scale
watercolour, of part of what I'm planning.  The canvas
 will be in colour, but it's a winter scene so quite muted.

Have a getting-things-done day.