Creating a List of What You Love

Each day I am aware of the things I love, be they ideas and thoughts, places I have been, or objects. Either they come into my mind in some fleeting way or I see them before me. One day I decided to write them down. The list began this way:

• Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert
• Medieval documents and times
• Norman architecture
• Neolithic monuments
• Books and music of Hildegaard de Bingen
• Julian of Norwich
• Being in Presence
• Walking the wall surrounding York

Expanding the List of What You Love

Other thoughts crowded in and other objects were noticed, so I began to write the list of what I loved in a stream-of-consciousness mode, just whatever came to mind, and ended up with this:

Maeshow, writing stories, working with people involved in the evolution of human consciousness, Renaissance and baroque music, William Byrd’s motet, Harry’s care, practicing Celtic harp, following old sci-fi movies, writing blog posts, Skype talk with friends, coffee shop with friends, podcasts with friends, QiGong, following wildlife groups, bougainvillea, the color indigo, hearing chimes, UFOs, reading mystery authors and other books, reading the Seth books and Edgar Cayce, experiencing the natural world, Shawangunk mountains, and prayer and attending to spirit, golden retrievers, wolves, conserving the earth, Jane Goodall’s writings, medieval herbalists, scribes in abbeys, illuminated manuscripts, prehistoric monoliths of Northumberland and Wiltshire, ancient bells of England, Old English words, Northern Cardinals, silence of snow falling, sparkly things…

There are more, and yet time seems to stretch and accommodate everything. I keep expanding the list. And recently I began collecting images of the list, some of which I show below. This, too, I am continuing to do.

Your List Reveals Your Heart

What comes to mind most of all is that all these things bring a response in my heart — they are not transitory — they are aspects of this precious life given to me to know and encounter. It is their particular presence in my life from inner and outer journeys taken that makes their combination unique to me, a shaping force, if you will. Writing them down and gathering images of them brings a great peace of heart.

Each of us has such a unique list, both in words and in images that circumscribe who we are, a list of what we love.

What might such a list of your own look like–become? Do feel free to share any part of it in a comment below. It is in the sharing much of it comes to life.