Lori Duff Writes

We’re gonna have to do something about the pace at which time is whipping by.  I’ve got, by my estimate, about 178 years’ worth of things left on my to-do list and, if you can believe actuaries, only about thirty years left in which to get them done.

Which makes me think that I need to start prioritizing.  I need to prune that list, cut down on the things that don’t actually need to be done, and focus on the things that are semi-important.

Only here’s the problem: the more I go about editing my list?  The more I realize that the things I’ve spent fifty-some-odd years categorizing as ‘important’ might just be a complete waste of my time.  On my deathbed, am I really going to wish I’d done more laundry?  Okay, having clean clothes to wear is a mark of a civilized person living in a developed nation, but if I simply spent my time re-washing and re-wearing the same three comfy outfits that neither need to be hung up or ironed, would the world come to an end?

On the other hand, if you told me I had only a few months to live, odds are one of the first things I would do is look at my massive ‘to be read’ pile and be sad that it will out-live me in something close to its present size.  Of course, that’s a likely outcome no matter when I go, as the pile manages to somehow get bigger every time I take a book off the top.[1]

I’m sure you’ve guessed that I just had a birthday, and I’m old enough now to realize that each birthday is one step closer to my mortality.  I’m old enough that people I worked with only live on in the memories of folks who’ve been around a while.  I get Facebook reminders of birthdays of people who aren’t around to read my messages to them.  I don’t have the heart to unfriend them or even block them – they are my friends.  The reminders give me a painful twinge, but they also give me a smile. 

In addition to having a birthday recently, I also got sick.  I don’t know what disease it was, but I’m calling it the Martian Death Flu.[2]  It knocked me flat for about four days.  Sometimes I think the universe gives me curable, recoverable diseases like that just so I’ll be still for a few hours at a time.  For days, I didn’t look at my phone or check my email or really do anything more productive than breathe.  And you know what happened? 

Nothing.  Nothing happened.  The Earth continued to spin on its axis, nobody lived or died or lost fortunes because I was AWOL for a few days.  I’m just not that important in the grand scheme of things.

And lest you think I’m fishing for comfort or compliments, I’m not.  I need to be knocked down a few pegs.  I’m just one being on a planet teeming with life.  It’s reassuring to know that it isn’t my hand on the tiller that is keeping the universe on course.  Greater forces than me have that under control.  Frankly, I’m just not that important. That’s a good thing.  I’m way too fallible for that kind of responsibility.  Plus, I have a lot of books still to read.  That pile isn’t going to clear itself. 

If you enjoyed this and want to read more like it, visit Lori on Twitter or on Facebook or read her award winning books.  Her newest book, a Foreword INDIES Gold Medal award winner, “If You Did What I Asked In The First Place” is currently available by clicking here.  Look for her novel “True North” coming in August 2024 by She Writes Press.

[1] Honestly, I know why this phenomenon occurs.  It is because I cannot stop buying books in the way that toddlers cannot stop themselves from putting anything colorful and shiny in their mouths.  The only way to stop it is to restrict access, which is tough in an on-line retail world.    

[2] Multiple COVID tests came back negative, so….

Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.