The Top 10 Things I Cannot Live Without!

The topic of my “Write Your History” group is “Write about the 10 things you cannot live without.” When I heard about it, I laughed. This is so appropriate because when I came here to California, I could only bring what Ed and I could get in the car, so I had to evaluate everything I brought with me to see whether I needed it in California or not! So I felt I had lived this topic.

These are the Top 10 Things I Can Not Live Without!

1. I cannot not live without a perm for my hair. I have the most awfully fine, straight hair that doesn’t want to do anything. My mother who had thick, naturally curly hair gave up on my hair and kept it braided because there was nothing else she could do with it. Then we discovered permanents to give hair curls and body and I have used them ever since I was 10-years-old. Even when Ed was in flight school and we lived on $98.00 a month, I bought a perm and gave it to myself because I knew I couldn’t face life with my straight hair. Every three to six months of my life, I’ve given myself a perm, had someone give me a perm—or when I had enough money, gotten a hair salon perm.

2. I need my glasses to live. I admit it. I am blind without them, so to have a satisfactory life, and see where I am going, who is in the world with me, and what I am doing, I need my glasses. Enough said; it is a fact of life.

3. This next item is not easy to say—I need my medicine! Okay, I could live without it. I wouldn’t die. But I sure would be miserable without it. My joints would ache; I would have constant migraines; I would be constantly tired; and fall asleep all the time, as well as have many other unmentionable problems, so I’m very glad I have it.

4. I can’t live without books. Sorry that is a necessity of life for me. I carry a book around in my purse with me in case I’m stranded somewhere and have to wait. If I have my trusty book, I won’t be bored. I brought a bag of paperback books with me in the car on our way to California. I found a library and got a library card the first week we were in Los Angeles. I have books lying around my house just in case I get really sick and can’t get out to get a book.

5. I really can’t live without a computer (especially my laptop) and my external hard drive with my life on it. I could count those as two things because they are different, but without a computer, my external hard drive would be useless. Also useless would be the CDs of my files (including my genealogy, my family history, my scans of my family pictures, my articles, etc.) that I have in my safety deposit box. I could get along without a TV because I could get my news from the computer, and even the TV shows I really like are available online; but live without my computer—not on your life!

6. I’m sorry, I never thought I would say this, but I can’t live without email! In today’s world, you need more than a phone to communicate with family—email, Facebook, even video messaging, when you can see and talk to your grandchildren LIVE is ESSENTIAL!

7. I can’t live without a cell phone. I can remember when Ed and I both said we’d never have an answering machine; then we got one and couldn’t live without it. Then we said we would never have a cell phone; then we got jobs that required cell phones and provided them. Now, we couldn’t live without a cell phone; it is impossible to live without being in touch with the world via the cell phone, and texting.

8. And, yes, I can’t get along without a car. I must admit that it is a mobile world, and a car is a indispensable. For years I went to work in Salt Lake on the bus. I try to walk a lot and even ride my bike so I am not DEPENDENT on a car, but I admit it—I am at the mercy of that four-wheeled, gas guzzling, glassy-eyed, two-ton, metal monster! We have a love/hate relationship with it, but I am at its mercy.

9. I can’t live without my scriptures, and I brought them with me in the car. Also, I am trying to write a short summary every day about what I read in my scripture, but I consider that as part of my scriptures. I’m not a major scriptural scholar, but it is important of me to have my scriptures and the current conference address session of the Ensign with me so I can try to keep in touch with the spirit.

10. You might notice that all the other items on my list easily fit in our car when we came to California in. In my years in the military when we moved overseas we had to live in what we brought in our suitcases for three months until our household goods arrived by boat. At times we have lived in a hotel room or an empty house for three months (even with six-month-old babies—twice), and we made do with the most rudimentary of living goods. I discovered you can make an adventure out of the most unusual situations and laugh.

But the most important thing I cannot live without is not a thing—but my family. But that is the one thing that we can’t guarantee we won’t live without. Our parents, extended family, all our loved ones eventually die. Our children grow up, move away and form their own families. Eventually we become “empty-nesters.” Eventually even our spouses die.

How wonderful it is that because of the Savior we can live eternally, and because of the gospel, we can be eternal families and be with our families forever. Though I someday have to live without my computer, my car, my glasses, my email, my cellphone, my perms and my medicines. I don’t ever have to live without my family. We can be together forever.