I worry a lot about undone things. They are like worry beads I rub my fingers against, feeling how smooth and hard each bead, each undone thing. I move from one bead to the next, internalizing the unyielding pressure of that bead. I make lists: phone calls and appointments to make, writing to do, bills to pay, research, shopping, errands. The list goes down, but I keep adding new undone things.

Then, realizing that ‘something doesn’t care,’ that some undone things are destined to remain undone, I allow myself the stretch of freedom that follows release from ongoing obligations. I contemplate the distance between the beads – the undesignated space that will ignite every moment devoted to it.

*inspired by “The Power of the Next Wonderful Moment” by Holly Prado, from These Mirrors Prove It, Cahuenga Press, 2004.