Unfinished

There is a file on my computer’s desktop entitled “unfinished”. This seems to be where I put unfinished blog posts and unfinished poetry. Sometimes documents will sit in that file for a very long time, often unreviewed and neglected. That’s okay with me. It may have a been a fresh idea at the time and now it has lost its lustre. I keep the unfinished file intact. I don’t delete those that have passed their ‘use by’ date. I never know when the idea, once rejected, might pop back to life as a remarkable piece of writing. At least, that’s what the ‘experts’ tell me.

So it sits there, a blue icon shaped like an old-fashioned file folder, a shape I know so well. In fact I have a few of the tangible things floating around my study right now, in 2026.

Looking at that virtual folder I wonder what is yet unfinished in my life. There will, hopefully, be more writing to do, maybe even a resurrection from that folder. What, though, is yet unfinished in the rest of my personal world?

Most of the important paperwork is long-since completed. I’m about to have the bi-annual review of my will, lasting powers of attorney, advance directives, etc. I try to do this every two years, just to make sure everything in my will is still as I want it; that the people I have asked to be my attorneys are still willing and able; that my decisions about my health care and medical treatment (should I not be able to voice them) are still valid. All of those tasks are what I consider sacred tasks of the elder. While they are sometimes tedious, sometimes heartbreaking, I do them so that those who survive me will have an easier path to tread.

There are, however, a few legal documents that need tending. I ask myself why I postpone and procrastinate. There is no discernible reason other than tedium. One bit of financial paperwork remains to be completed. I will make a commitment to myself to finish it by the Spring Equinox, this year. That helps me—a deadline, albeit one I have created for myself, not on foisted upon me by a boss, or the tax authorities.

An acquaintance of mine spoke to me about the “mess” their widowed uncle left behind—none of his wishes known, drawers full of assorted papers, piles of clothes that hadn’t been worn in years, no will, no funeral/burial plans—nothing. The family members, who squabbled, had to make all the decisions, including intubation. Then I asked her if she had taken care of all that business for herself. She looked shocked, then abashed. She had not. She, like so many, believed she didn’t need to “yet”. I asked her how she would know when “yet” had arrived. She couldn’t tell me.

“Yet” may be your next breath. Don’t let it catch you unprepared, at least with your paperwork. We have no control over the circumstances of our death. We do have some control over the legal, financial and medical circumstances of it. No matter where you live, there is support for making these arrangements. Though the decisions and conversations that are needed might be difficult, they are worth the effort.

Don’t let them remain in the ‘unfinished’ file.