One Thing happened and then another and another
stacking, no piling haphazardly a top each other,
ready to crash down in a pile of frustration.

I wanted to hide, to slip away for a minute or maybe two,
but there was already someone in the staff bathroom
and there’s too much stuff under my desk for me to fit down there.

So I sit back down and look down at my MIT list*,
no idea where to begin.
“What’s the best way to eat an elephant,” I ask myself and laugh.
And I start to take the first bite.

“Ms. Ivey?”
A little head pops in my door.
“Hey, buddy. What’s up?”
“I just wanted to see if you were in here,” she says.
“Welp…I’m here!
And I’m glad you’re here…
but where are you supposed to be?”
“The library,” she says with giggle.

She goes, and I go.
Both of us doing all of our Things.
Busy, busy.
So many Things.
And my phone buzzes a reminder of yet another Thing to be done.
But this Thing?
This Thing is something I want to do.

My girls’ group.
Oh, I love my girls.
Not our usual day or usual time,
But we’ve claimed it as ours this week.
And so we gather.
And we talk.
And we laugh.
And I sit with a comb and brush all the bits of straw from her jacket
as she tells me stories of rolling down the hill
while the others color quietly.
And I sharpen color pencils as they ask for each one.
And I staple the pages of our books together juuuuuust right.
One Thing after another after another.
But these are the Things I don’t mind.
These are the Things that matter.
These are the Things that make up my days.
And, to be honest, I’m pretty okay with that.

*Most Important Things. MIT just sounds better than To Do, right?