In the 1964 television Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer there is an island of misfit toys. Perhaps you remember? The Jack-in-the-Box named Charlie, the train with square wheels, a boat that doesn’t stay afloat or the elephant with polka dots. Potential gifts that weren’t quite right.

It occurred to me the other day that I have my own personal island of misfit toys. Not toys per se but projects unfinished and wants unfulfilled. In essence my closet of undone things:

• Cataloguing and reorganizing all the digital photos on my phone and the computer. Do I really need four photos of the same mistakenly snapped picture of our son’s ninth grade soccer game? No one knows who the boys are, not even which one is our son. Or the numerous pictures of plants and flower that caught my eye. At the time I thought they were National Geographic- worthy. In retrospect, not so much.

• Sorting through the remaining boxes of our parents’ mementoes. Pictures, clippings that have no category yet I cannot part with them. Yet or perhaps ever. Part of the collection contains our parents’ parents’ mementoes that they too could not decide with what to do.

• Creating a scrapbook for each of the boys, containing pictures, awards, mementoes of their lives. I have had this project on my “list” since they were born. Over two decades long.

• Sorting out my craft/project box. Will I ever make new candles using the melted stubs of old ones? Will I ever learn to knit? How about the unfinished needle work projects? When we had to sort out my mother’s things, she too had unfinished projects. In fact, some of mine are inherited from hers.

I think of the list of subjects I would like to learn and conquer: speaking a foreign language (Heck, I wish I could just master English but French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek would be mighty nice.); learning calligraphy; mastering carpentry skills; knowing botanical names of plants; tailoring clothes; cooking bouillabaisse like we had in Bar Harbor- to name a few. Or the dreams that may never come to fruition- learning to ride a horse in order to participate in a steeplechase, living for a time in various cities (e.g. Boston, New York, Paris) or small villages (in England/Scotland/Provence), walking The Way (Camino de Santiago), participating in the Marine Corps Marathon.

These unfinished items may or may not ever get completed. Some of my ideas and plans cannot happen without the aid of family, friends or “experts”. I cannot do them on my own.

I am also aware that there will be always be undone things in this world and ongoing issues. Call it the human condition. One of the frustrations in working in a hospital or any 24/7 operation is that by design, there will always be something more that needs to be done. For people who like to complete their to-do list, it is a challenge. While some things can be checked off, there are others that have to be handed off to the next shift.

That is especially true when caring for another, whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually: it is an ongoing and unending operation. No one person can or should shoulder that burden alone or feel that she is finishing everything up in a neat little bow. It is a Sisyphus-type endeavor to think that life presents finished or completed work. Not with people. Not with life’s problems.

What is to be done? Not tackle the issues? Leave the closet door of undone things closed? Leave the misfits on the island?

If we finish all our projects, conquer all our challenges, and tie up all our loose ends, where does that leave us?

I think we would be loaded with pride and lacking humility. I think we need the closet of undone things to remind us that we are not complete ourselves and that we need God and each other to fill in those gaps.I think that is why God made us part of a community. To realize that all have a place in God’s kingdom and we all have a purpose.

In the story about Rudolph, the misfit toys do find homes. They are not repaired or changed in any way in their form or being. They fit in, just as they are. They help Rudolph and friends and in turn find purpose and love in their lives.

What about you? Do you have a closet of unfinished items? Literally? Figuratively? Can you complete those items on your own? Do you need the assistance of someone else? Is it a project that is best left for someone else?

My closet of unfinished items reminds me that there is always an unfinished item. And that is okay. Sure, it is good to have a project and a goal in mind. But if we are people who are always open to new things: to learning, to experiencing life, to helping, to sharing, and to caring we may get side tracked from our initial intention. Life with others is a disruption but it is also a joy. Because as is the case with the hospital working- we need each other to shoulder burdens, to bear the weight and responsibility of life, and to collectively pick up the cause, the project, and the moving towards healing, wholeness and community.