The List

This blog was created to help me preserve my memories from, what I believe, to be my golden years. I don't want to forget anything about this time in my life and I have found it is very easy to do when you don't write it down. That being said, I am going to go out on a limb and write about something honest, and perhaps even a little uncouth. To anyone who might read this, please know I am writing this to help preserve something wonderful and lovely in my eyes.

So here's the honest part: sometimes I create a list of favorite people in my head. I find it helps me keep things in perspective because I'm able to prioritize what is truly important and am therefore able to stop worrying about chores and errands and other insignificants.  I try to keep it to a top five (usually adding a few more along the way) to I make sure it's only the really really important ones. I have been able to trend the fact that it's always family; the ones who have stuck with you through the good and the bad, the ones you spend your holidays and create the most special moments with. The ones who leave your heart feeling extra warm and cared for when you crawl into bed at night. The ones you pray really hard for because you want them to be given every single wonderful thing in the world. Needless to say, these people have also been in my life a significant amount of time- through the really really good and also the really really bad- but a very long time nonetheless.

And here comes the epiphany: It's been a while since I had gone over my list of favorite people so when I started it last night I was almost surprised to find this new addition. It was a Lily. This teeny tiny being who has been in existence for an mere 15 months has somehow wiggled her way into my top favorite people. How is it someone who can't even string together a sentence has completely and utterly changed my whole life? How can someone with approximately 8.75 teeth and hair constantly hanging in her eyes become my all? Of course I knew, even before she was born, what an impact she would have on my life, but thinking about the other people on my list and how long I have known them and everything they've been through to get on this list made me shake my head a little. This tiny creature climbed right up to the top of my list of favorite people the moment her beautiful blue eyes met mine that sunny August afternoon.

I just couldn't stop thinking of my list pre-Lily. There were typically the same top people but then always a huge slew that I always felt guilty about because I really wanted to add a 4.5 and a 4.75 just so they could make the top 5. There are so many awesome, influential and down right beautiful people in my life who I cherish with every part of my soul. So I still feel a little dumbfounded that these babies who we essentially don't know a thing about are our number ones, no questions asked, no ifs ands or buts about it. You just know they were put on this earth to be loved by you and that takes over as your most important job in the world.

So Lily, if you are reading this ten years from now, kudos to getting to the bottom because you're only 11 and this is really long. But I also hope you know how much you mean to me and how much you've always meant to me. I never thought twice about the fact that you were brand new to my life and we hardly knew one another. I know your heart better than anyone in this world because it is made from mine.

I would also like to add a quick note to those who might have been worried about no longer being on my list of favorite people post-Lily.  Please let me assure you that Lily did not replace ANYONE on my favorites list, it simply became just a little bit longer.