We all want to be part of something big and long-lasting.  Pyramids big in size and forever-and-ever in duration.  I am no different.

My first attempt to achieve foreverness came in third grade, Mrs. Mitchell’s class.  It was a new school, a brand-new school.  Everything was fresh out of the box- new chairs and books and swings and students.  Brand-spanking new.  Even the name was new; it had been chosen in a county-wide contest: Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School.  That was a way long name; we called it King School for short.

This new school needed a new school song, an anthem, if you will.  Mrs. Wiggins, the itinerant music teacher, helped each class draft four verses set to a tune she had written out on the chalk board.  Then, in Assembly (you remember Assembly, don’t you), each class sang their version.  Somehow, we voted and a winner was chosen from each grade-level.  Then, the grade-level winners had a sing-off (we were way ahead of American Idol) and a winner was chosen from the whole school.

Wouldn’t you know Mrs. Mitchell’s Third Grade Class won!  To this day, I can still sing it:

King School’s the Greatest!  King School’s the Best!  There’s no school better than this.
Teachers are super; Children are smart; we know that Cobras can’t miss!
Colors of blue and also of gold—they sure make King Cobras hiss!
We’ll always work hard, we’ll never stop.  We’ll keep King School at the top!

Alas, the song did not catch on like I had imagined it would.  It is not sung on national holidays or before major sporting events.  It is not even sung at King School anymore; several years ago they changed their mascot to something else- a lion, I think.  So much for forever fame for me and my classmates.

We all recognize that we should pour our energy into things that matter, really important things, the valuable things in life.  Steven Covey refers to this as the big rocks in a jar- there are other ways of describing it.  I like to think of it as foreverness.

Several years ago, I knew a man who worked as a life coach on the side.  I sat down with him and over the course of several weeks we developed a “Vision Worksheet”.  That sounds very grand.  I think of it more as Post-It notes for my life; reminders of what I want for my life and what is important to me.

Perhaps is sounds kind of silly.  Or redundant—don’t you know what’s important to you?  I have found it to be really helpful, actually, because, let’s face it, this world is really big and busy- it is easy to get distracted or blown off course.  Having something tangible to match my decisions up against keeps me on course. 

A recent example of this as a trip to see Disney’s Princess Wishes on Ice.  That may seem a stretch, but hang on.  A friend had won four tickets and invited me and my niece to the show; however, I already had plans for the evening (somehow Princess Wishes was not on my radar- imagine that!).  My initial response was to decline- I had something else in mind and I wanted to check it off my list.  But then I remembered my worksheet.  On it, I note relationships that are particularly important to me.  My friend is one of these priority relationships for me; my niece is another.  Added to that, this friend has been having a hard time of late and has been a bit isolated.  She is getting help and becoming healthier, and I want to encourage that.  When I paired up my options with my priorities the decision was a no-brainer.  I was off to Princess Wishes.

This time, I got it right and made a choice in favor of foreverness- specifically relationships I value and hope to maintain for the long-haul.  I am sure I will get it wrong again, sometimes, too; it is bound to happen.  But hopefully, with my life Post-Its, I will get it right more than I get it wrong and slowly, over time, my life will fill up with the richness, fullness and satisfaction of those things which matter most to me.