worth my salt?

of piles and lists

seems to me

that life involves piles of things that need to be sorted,

lists of things that need to be done,

now I have time and space

to get to neglected piles and lists,

it takes a lot of energy to sort,

to decide the relative values of what is together:

what’s trash? what should be recycled?

what needs to be filed away?

what needs to be dealt with now?

I have to get in the right mood, 

the right frame of mind,

and find the oomph to organize,

to decide what needs to be embraced,

what needs to be discarded,

what projects inside and outside 

call loudly enough to get attention,

which ones still need 

a longer timeline for resolution,

it’s fun to get to the cooking that calls me,

it feels good to get to the chores that can weigh on me,

I even include books and videos 

that weigh on me to get to them,

life seems to me to need justification,

a sense of paying for the privilege

with the penance of making a difference,

the piles reduce,

the lists diminish,

and I hope I am worth my salt.

by Henry H. Walker

April 15, ‘20