Making lists works for me. I keep a general note on my phone of objectives, including writing, working on costumes, quilting, writing cards, connecting with my kids, and at least a stab at cleaning. Having these items front and center increases the odds that I will accomplish them. It also deflates the negative message that berates me on a regular basis. 

 

"I didn't get anything done this week."

 

The hard truth is that I do not finish all of them every spin around the sun. But there is little doubt that I integrate them more than I would if they were not written down. 

 

Recently Benjamin has been listening to Beauty and the Beast on continuous loop. He howls at Gaston's narcissism, and lives vicariously through the courage of a Beast who learns to care for a feisty young woman. Emma Thompson is the voice of Mrs. Potts, and I hear her sweetly crooning to Chip every single day. Perhaps this contributed to my efforts to watch movies she is in. She was delightful in Much Ado About Nothing, and Wit. I couldn't find those, so I clicked on The Children's Act. 

 

Emma plays a powerful British judge, who makes life and death decisions from her lofty seat above the courtroom. But at home she barely acknowledges her husband's presence. He tries to engage her with conversation, or dinner, or a kiss, but she will not be distracted. He eats alone. Her to do list is saturated with briefs, and studying legal documents. It made me sad. 

 

In the end she is sad too, not because of her marriage which is listing, but because of a young man who refuses medical treatment and dies. It does not end the way I would prefer which would be for her to turn toward her husband of twenty years and put him back at the top of her list. But she does walk side by side with him away from the funeral. It's a start. 

 

Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong
 

Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly

Just a little change
Small, to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the beast