...it got me thinking about life.

 

I found a discarded shopping list in a trolley the other day,

and it got me thinking about life.

There was something oddly comforting about that list of eggs, milk and washing-up liquid. A reminder that life is made up of - and mostly filled with - the small things; the everyday things. The things we need and use and reach for, over and over again.

But nestled in amongst the everyday, was the other stuff -

Cakes for work

Anniversary card

Flowers for Mum

Book for holiday

- the stuff that spoke to me of living; of someone making plans and loving people and enjoying themselves.

I found myself wondering if the author had missed something off the list; if they'd forgotten anything whilst shopping, and whether they'd picked up things they'd never intended to buy. I wondered whether they'd bumped into someone they knew in the supermarket, and whether they'd stopped to chat.

The list was finite and yet unfinished; the author had intended the list to end right where it was, and yet there was space for other things that could have been added. Incompletely complete.

That piece of paper alone carried no weight.

But woven in amongst the words, was the thread of life.

Because in life, we'll experience the beautiful balance of the every-day and the every-so-often. And instead of trying to 'complete' it, as if it's some sort of tick sheet, we'll learn how to enjoy it; with cakes and flowers and books. And with people we care about.

We'll forget things in life. We'll miss things, we'll overlook things and we'll find things that we never knew we wanted or needed, until we found them.

We'll bump into old friends, we'll plan for the future and we'll leave behind things that aren't important to us anymore.

And we'll make lists and scribbled notes as we go.

Maybe not with pen and paper,

and maybe not the kind someone else might find discarded in a shopping trolley,

but we'll still leave little pieces of ourselves behind for others to find, even without realising.

And in doing so, in between the

eggs

milk

washing up liquid,

we'll realise that the true beauty of life

is in the way that it is everything all at once.

A list and an entire story all at the same time.

Finite and yet unfinished.

Incompletely

complete.

*****

Becky Hemsley 2025

Artwork by Eric Noirmain (also called Lortiwa)

Source: Facebook - Becky Hemsley Poetry