What I'll Miss, Inspired by Nora Ephron

I didn’t know much about writer-filmmaker Nora Ephron until after her recent passing, but she wrote this list of things she’d miss in life (and things that she won’t miss).  Inspired by this, I thought I would write my own list.  It’ll be interesting to revisit years from now and see if I still feel the same!

Things I Won’t Miss

1. Commuting to Work
2. Mommy Wars
3. Chores
4. Facebook
5. Twitter
6. Bills
7. Dogs
8. Cable Companies
9. Office Politics
10. Kid Tantrums
11. Nasty Blog Comments
12. Endless Striving
13. Money Worries
14. Grudges
15. Aches and pains
16. Health Insurance Insanity (bureaucracy, denials, etc..)
17. People who stress out over little things at work
18. Sunblock
19. Fast food
20. California summers (when you don’t live near the ocean)

Things I Will Miss

1. Motherhood
2. My Kids
3. Husband
4. Family, especially my Mom
5. Friends
6. Dancing
7. Dogs
8. Kids laughing
9. Great books
10. A good cup of cappuccino
11. Where the ocean meets the forest/nature
12. Traveling
13. Learning new things
14. Good TV shows
15. Emails
16. Summer fruits
17. Blogs and Blogging
18. Music of my youth
19. Good FOOD!
20. California winters

Surprisingly for me, it was easier to come up with “Things I Will Miss”.   While I can be kind of grumpy, there are so many beautiful things that are worth missing.  I didn’t even name sunsets, the ocean or my home.   I think writing this list was an interesting exercise because it focuses on things you’ll miss as opposed to things you love/like.  While I really love my comfortable new ballet flats, for example, it’s not something that I would miss.   I do think my home would make it to #21 but that has less to do with decor than the feeling of home.  I guess in the end it is really the simple things that matter.

For the list of “Things I Won’t Miss”, I ran out of steam by number 13 but thought I would get it up to 20. 

What Things Would You Miss (and Not Miss)?