The things we need

I have discovered, after long years of experience, that there is no way to pack perfectly. Whether it is for a new place that you are preparing, or a new time, you will take things you will not need and you will have left behind something terribly important. As long as the turn ahead holds suspense, your assessments of what you’re likely to need will be off the mark. I’m resigned to this.

Poet Carolyn Hall muses in retrospect:
year's end—
what made me think I needed
a harmonica

My sympathies, but I must quibble with the poet here: I think we could always make a little room for a harmonica.