Recently, I attended a play on Broadway. The theme of it is still resounding in my heart.
It was about a young child whose Mom had attempted suicide. Thankfully, this child was sent to therapy to deal with the pain and confusion that he was experiencing.
And through therapy, one of the exercises he was given was to keep a list of things that fascinated him — every brilliant thing in life for which he was grateful.
“Ice Cream… water fights… the color yellow… things with stripes…”
The writing of this list allowed him to focus on joy, and not on the fear of possibly losing his mother. “Staying up past your bedtime… rollercoasters…construction cranes… “
As his list grew from a list of 20 — to 100 — to 500, 1000, and 10,000 he tried to share the list with his Mom, to help lift her from her mood swings and depression.
“Sunlight… Kind old people who aren’t weird and don’t smell unusual… laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose…”
He would leave notes for her around the house sharing parts of his list in cards for her, but she never mentioned receiving them. He doesn’t know if she ever read them.
As he matured, the list matured and grew… 50,000, 100,000, 500,000. Although he knew that his sharing of the list with his Mom didn’t necessarily do anything to help “cure” her, it did help him deal with life, and his fear that maybe he would inherit depression.
He kept listing: “The sound of a needle dropping on a vinyl record… reading in the bath… a much needed sneeze… hammocks…”
His list grew over many years to 1,000,000, and the process helped him to deal with life. What might a list like this do for any one of us at this time in life?
Imagine the small joys that might develop in our beings if we participated? Writing a list of a million things is an overwhelming thought. What if we started with 10…. and let it grow?
I think it’s worth a try!
