Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts

by Marilyn McEntyre

Overview

What if writing a list could literally change your life?​

From the ancient book of Numbers to the latest clickbait listicle, list-writing has been a routine feature of human experience. Shopping lists. To-do lists. Guest lists. Bucket lists. Lists are everywhere you look.​

But what if our lists did more than just remind us to buy milk and take out the trash? What if the practice of list-making could help us discover who we truly are and even point us to our deepest joys, hopes, and desires?​

In Make a List teacher, writer, and wordsmith Marilyn McEntyre shows readers how the simple act of writing a list can open doors to personal discovery and spiritual growth. Deepening her reflections with abundant writing prompts and real-life examples, McEntyre turns the humble list into a work of art—one that has the power to clear minds, open hearts, and change lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802882257
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	11/26/2021
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Marilyn McEntyre is the award-winning author of several books on language and faith, including Where the Eye Alights, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict, When Poets Pray, Make a List, Word by Word, and What's in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause, winner of the 2015 Christianity Today book award in spirituality.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: Living by Lists
1. Why Make a List?
2. The Way of the List-Maker
3. Play Lists
Appendix: A Few Final Lists for your General Enjoyment

Editorial Reviews

Goes well beyond the to-do list to invite new and creative ways of thinking and doing. . . . Readers of all kinds, from type A veteran list-makers to those whose blood pressure rises at the thought of making a list, will find much useful information here.”
— Publishers Weekly
 
“In this lively, creative, and pleasure-filled book, Marilyn McEntyre presents the making of lists as a path into a wonder-filled pluriverse. . . . Whether you tend to scribble a list on a scrap of paper or regularly fill your journal with them, you will find some great ideas here!”
— Spirituality & Practice

“You do not have to go too far into the book to discover that McEntyre has created a whole new paradigm shift, moving lists out of being simply to-do taskmasters and into being a tool to help us delve deeper into our lives and indeed into our very souls.”
— The Presbyterian Outlook

“A perfect book for yourself or to give as a gift.”
— San Francisco Book Review
 
“Marilyn McEntyre reminds me of the power of language—to heal and instruct us, to challenge and shape us.”
— Shauna Niequist
 
“Brings lively attention to the way words can open multiple doors of memory, imagination, and reflection.”
— Richard Rohr
 
“Encourages, guides, and directs. . . . Marilyn McEntyre embodies simple, patient kindness in her writing.”
— Michael Card
 
“Just one week into living with Make a List, I can already tell that this small book, which both invites me into a new practice and reframes one of my existing daily habits as a spiritual practice, will be life-giving and edifying.”
— Lauren F. Winner
 
“A companion who can abide amid our chaos, a sage who can choose the right moment to share a word, and a prophet who can say the thing we shrink from yet need to hear.”
— Samuel Wells

From the Publisher

12/11/2017
There’s more to list-making than that “honey-do” hanging from the fridge magnet, suggests McEntyre (What’s in a Phrase?) in this small volume, which goes well beyond the to-do list to invite new and creative ways of thinking and doing. In brief chapters organized within three general categories—whys, ways, and examples of list-making—McEntyre peppers her discussion with suggestions of lists to try. “Changes I Find Threatening,” “Why They Might Be Angry,” and “Fun I Never Thought I’d Have” are three highlights that will not have occurred to many readers before. McEntyre shows how a list’s title can shape one’s approach to challenges both internal and external. She passionately declares that relationships, intellectual curiosity, and the search for meaning can be reinvigorated by articulating individual items. Acknowledging the difficult work that goes into changing one’s life, McEntyre believes listing can be a useful, creative act to spur change. Readers of all kinds, from type A veteran list-makers to those whose blood pressure rises at the thought of making a list, will find much useful information here. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly