Updated life list
After my previous entry, I realized I have not revisited my life list in a year and a half, so it seemed like a good time to do so.
I can't be bothered to redo the numbering, so just rest assured there are 100 things in here... and I will just mark every change with "NEW" or "UPDATED" and let the numbering be wonky where it will.
Already accomplished
1. Play piano in a public recital.
2. Write a paper that’s praiseworthy and prideworthy.
3. Present that paper in a conference.
4. Take modern dance classes.
5. Teach people to read.
6. Work for a nonprofit.
7. Take a creative writing class.
8. Go to grad school.
9. Volunteer.
10. Travel alone.
11. Take a homeless person out for a meal.
NEW Eat at Ubuntu in Napa. -- We did this a year ago, and while the food was delicious, it was not a life-changing experience.
NEW Eat more like a vegan, but also eat really good meat if the time is right (and this should not be often). Find a balance here that I’m not embarrassed to explain to people who think you have to be either vegetarian or carnivore, or people who all too readily embrace the term “flexitarian”. -- See previous entry!
NEW Not live in Los Angeles, which will make being in nature a lot easier!!
NEW Do something that seems impossible right now. -- singing vibrato (which I'm sometimes able to do now) and topping out at the bouldering gym both qualify very well. :)
NEW Learn to sing in a way that pleases me. -- Ho ho, I am well on my way. And I am already immensely pleased, I'll have you know.
NEW Have a garden, however small. One that doesn’t die or look pitiful! -- Yay, I'm doing this! And uh, yeah, a lot of it has died over the summer. :( But the zinnias do not look pitiful! So I feel fine putting this on the "accomplished" list. ;)
In progress
12. Be able to do a yoga handstand without any human help (the wall is okay).
13. Be comfortable doing yoga arm balances.
UPDATED 14. Meditate, if not every day, at least somewhat regularly. It’s okay if that means only when I’m upset or out of sorts. -- I am doing this now, but have only been at it since mid-August, so I'll leave this on the "in progress" list for at least another six months!
15. Create and maintain a nice website.
UPDATED 17. Get fit enough again that I feel ready to strut my stuff anytime, wearing anything (or nothing). -- Definitely well underway.
18. Work my way through my cookbook shelf!!
19. Get through Jason’s must-see movies list. (We watch one every Thursday.)
20. Never stop feeling like I’m making a difference in the world.
UPDATED 21. Have a happy marriage. -- Still going strong. :)
22. Do whatever I can to help my sisters and closest friends realize their full potential.
23. Make a habit of visiting friends who live in other places. (So far we do this only occasionally.)
24. Put my correspondence and event programs into scrapbooks that I then actually look at.
25. Get more massages.
26. Give more massages.
27. Fear nothing, including (and especially) death.
UPDATED 28. Write, write, write, and own it and love it. -- Working on it daily, definitely seeing improvement.
UPDATED 29. Learn to truly live in the present moment. -- Same comment as for #28.
UPDATED 30. Care not for material things. Mostly. -- Same comment as for #28.
32. Meet lots of people. Have parties I can invite them to.
NEW Write a book. Or write and draw one. -- This has now been moved to "in progress" from the "I could do this now, but haven't yet" list. Yay!
NEW Make creative work my livelihood, or at least be able to call it my profession (part-time is okay). -- Working on it, in so many ways.
NEW Have a house in which the indoor (kitchen) and outdoor dining space are so connected that we think nothing of moving easily between the two for meals. -- Well, we're working on it, but we're not there yet. It doesn't help that we live in a high-wind area.
NEW Be outdoors and in nature regularly. -- We ramble the trails weekly, if not near-daily.
NEW Vacation in a place that feels secluded and unspoiled, like a little hut on an island, or a cabin in the woods in some remote place in Canada. -- Farm Sanctuary fits the bill, but didn't satisfy this urge, so I'm modifying the goal: Vacation SOMEWHAT REGULARLY in such a place. :)
NEW Work from home in a beautiful light-filled studio with flowers. -- Wow, it blows my mind to realize I am kind of doing this. The office isn't *always* light-filled, and I haven't put any flowers in it this week, but it *is* my space, I find it beautiful, and I work here every day.
NEW Learn to do really good portraits, preferably in paints, but in pen and inks if that’s what it takes. -- I am SO delighted to be able to move this to the "in progress" list.
NEW Make a family tree or in some other way delve deeply into my family history. -- Awesome, I'm so happy to add this to "in progress."
NEW Firm, love, and show off my butt. Not in a vulgar way. -- Working on this. :) Yoga, climbing, and walking hills are all helping to firm me up!
I could do this now, I guess, but I don’t want to or haven’t yet
33. Live in a different state.
34. Hike/walk a mountain in another country. This is more about the scenery and experience than the mountain or the exercise, so it doesn’t have to be Everest (or even close to it)!
36. Make a painting that is really beautiful (to my taste and no one else’s).
39. Find a beach I really love, and go there regularly. This can mean every day, or every few summers.
UPDATED 40. Be able to sew my own clothes (even if I don’t end up doing so). -- I really hope to be able to move this one to "in progress" by the end of 2009.
44. Have the kind of home my parents have, where people come over all the time, and the house always feels lively and full of laughter.
45. Take a sunrise hike… or just go someplace special to watch the sunrise.
46. Go to the desert in the early morning with Erik, and take pictures.
48. Re-learn to dance, though it doesn’t have to be modern.
49. Learn to sing folk songs, chants, and old old songs.
50. Sell cards that I draw, in however tiny a way.
51. Write a fan letter to an author.
52. Take Mommy to Chez Panisse Café, or equivalent.
53. Take Erik to Alinea, or equivalent.
54. Articulate my ideas on TSVW (note to self, not yet for public consumption!).
55. Own a pair of shoes I really love that I can actually walk in.
UPDATED 56. Learn how to sculpt or make pottery. -- This is definitely on hold for now.
UPDATED 57. Get good at watercolors. -- Same as above. I have too many other art goals to worry about these just yet.
59. Learn to like swimming.
Craziness I’ll save for the future, or don’t foresee happening anytime soon
60. Travel somewhat regularly.
61. Have a dog.
62. Raise children. Adopted kids count.
63. Be friends with someone who makes movies I like.
64. Plant/maintain our own fruit trees, especially lemon and orange.
67. Write and illustrate a children’s book, if only for my own kids (or my sisters’).
68. Live with Shra and Devin, either in the same (big) house or next door.
69. Paint the interior walls of my living space.
71. Keep chickens, unless I find out they’re smelly and gross and I don’t want them anymore.
72. Bake regularly for my kids and grandkids.
73. Visit Greece.
74. Visit Japan.
75. Travel throughout China.
UPDATED 76. Visit Prince Edward Island, just because I’ve always loved Anne of Green Gables. I guess this isn’t a must, but it’d be fun. -- We are seriously considering doing this next year, combining it with a trip to Toronto.
UPDATED 77. Be friends with someone who owns a bakery, store, café, or restaurant I like, so I can hang out there! -- I have gotten friendly with the lady who runs the cafe at our rock gym, and I like her baking and that space, so this one is kind of fulfilled for now.
78. Really, really splurge on something material but not silly (so: house but not sports car, coat but not strappy shoes).
79. If he still wants one by the time I can afford one, buy Daddo a houseboat. When we were kids Shra promised to someday buy him a house, and I promised a houseboat.
80. Go on a rollercoaster that scares me but doesn’t terrify me. Splash Mountain will work, but none of those horrible drop-straight-down things.
81. Be able to identify lots of trees and plants.
UPDATED 82. Live in a place that fills me with joy. I mean a geographical place, not the house itself. -- San Pablo doesn't fill me with joy, but it does fill me with satisfaction and gratitude quite often. That will do for now.
83. Do something crazy and lasting on a whim, and never regret it.
84. Have a bathtub big enough for two, preferably next to a window.
UPDATED 85. Live someplace where I can go to the farmers’ market (or its equivalent) multiple times a week, so I can eat local, seasonal, super-fresh food almost exclusively. -- Our CSA box is doing us well for now.
86. Host another party like our shindig, but this time for no “official” reason.
87. Learn more Shanghainese.
88. Learn more Cantonese.
89. Improve my French.
90. Visit Ireland.
91. Visit Denmark.
92. Invent something, maybe.
UPDATED 93. Invest time and work into something, and then be officially celebrated for it (on however small a scale, but not just within the household or something like that). -- I wonder if I will feel like the craft fair qualifies, after it's over. It's certainly the biggest public thing I've done in quite a while.
95. Take a cool train trip with Jackie on a classic line, like the Orient Express or Trans-Siberian Express.
96. Row/paddle a boat across a lake. Even just those little paddleboats at Vasona Lake will do. WITH SUN PROTECTION!!!
UPDATED 97. Do something (on this list perhaps?) I’ve always wanted to do “but it’s just too crazy.” Even the thought of this makes me feel light and liberated. -- I don't know, there are a whole lot of new and updated things on this list that make me feel light and liberated when I look them over. Maybe my definition of "it's just too crazy" has changed, so that nothing seems too crazy anymore. That is cool. I like that. I'll leave this item here for now, though, in case I ever do find something crazy enough that it still makes me reel and go, "wow, it's just too crazy."
98. RV road trip! And there must be the kind of sandwiches I ate on our family RV road trip when I was four: white bread, Kraft Singles, ham (or veggie ham), mayo, tomato, and iceberg lettuce. Ugh, but yes.
99. Visit Antarctica.
Wow, I am really amazed at how many changes I have made over the past 17 months. I have completed six more goals, made really solid progress on six of my in-progress goals and moved nine more goals to that list, and transformed my life enough to make me feel less urgent about six of the "not in the near future" items. The really awe-inspiring part of this is not that one can get so much done in a year and a half, but that the impossible can shift so surely toward the possible in such a short time.
I can't be bothered to redo the numbering, so just rest assured there are 100 things in here... and I will just mark every change with "NEW" or "UPDATED" and let the numbering be wonky where it will.
Already accomplished
1. Play piano in a public recital.
2. Write a paper that’s praiseworthy and prideworthy.
3. Present that paper in a conference.
4. Take modern dance classes.
5. Teach people to read.
6. Work for a nonprofit.
7. Take a creative writing class.
8. Go to grad school.
9. Volunteer.
10. Travel alone.
11. Take a homeless person out for a meal.
NEW Eat at Ubuntu in Napa. -- We did this a year ago, and while the food was delicious, it was not a life-changing experience.
NEW Eat more like a vegan, but also eat really good meat if the time is right (and this should not be often). Find a balance here that I’m not embarrassed to explain to people who think you have to be either vegetarian or carnivore, or people who all too readily embrace the term “flexitarian”. -- See previous entry!
NEW Not live in Los Angeles, which will make being in nature a lot easier!!
NEW Do something that seems impossible right now. -- singing vibrato (which I'm sometimes able to do now) and topping out at the bouldering gym both qualify very well. :)
NEW Learn to sing in a way that pleases me. -- Ho ho, I am well on my way. And I am already immensely pleased, I'll have you know.
NEW Have a garden, however small. One that doesn’t die or look pitiful! -- Yay, I'm doing this! And uh, yeah, a lot of it has died over the summer. :( But the zinnias do not look pitiful! So I feel fine putting this on the "accomplished" list. ;)
In progress
12. Be able to do a yoga handstand without any human help (the wall is okay).
13. Be comfortable doing yoga arm balances.
UPDATED 14. Meditate, if not every day, at least somewhat regularly. It’s okay if that means only when I’m upset or out of sorts. -- I am doing this now, but have only been at it since mid-August, so I'll leave this on the "in progress" list for at least another six months!
15. Create and maintain a nice website.
UPDATED 17. Get fit enough again that I feel ready to strut my stuff anytime, wearing anything (or nothing). -- Definitely well underway.
18. Work my way through my cookbook shelf!!
19. Get through Jason’s must-see movies list. (We watch one every Thursday.)
20. Never stop feeling like I’m making a difference in the world.
UPDATED 21. Have a happy marriage. -- Still going strong. :)
22. Do whatever I can to help my sisters and closest friends realize their full potential.
23. Make a habit of visiting friends who live in other places. (So far we do this only occasionally.)
24. Put my correspondence and event programs into scrapbooks that I then actually look at.
25. Get more massages.
26. Give more massages.
27. Fear nothing, including (and especially) death.
UPDATED 28. Write, write, write, and own it and love it. -- Working on it daily, definitely seeing improvement.
UPDATED 29. Learn to truly live in the present moment. -- Same comment as for #28.
UPDATED 30. Care not for material things. Mostly. -- Same comment as for #28.
32. Meet lots of people. Have parties I can invite them to.
NEW Write a book. Or write and draw one. -- This has now been moved to "in progress" from the "I could do this now, but haven't yet" list. Yay!
NEW Make creative work my livelihood, or at least be able to call it my profession (part-time is okay). -- Working on it, in so many ways.
NEW Have a house in which the indoor (kitchen) and outdoor dining space are so connected that we think nothing of moving easily between the two for meals. -- Well, we're working on it, but we're not there yet. It doesn't help that we live in a high-wind area.
NEW Be outdoors and in nature regularly. -- We ramble the trails weekly, if not near-daily.
NEW Vacation in a place that feels secluded and unspoiled, like a little hut on an island, or a cabin in the woods in some remote place in Canada. -- Farm Sanctuary fits the bill, but didn't satisfy this urge, so I'm modifying the goal: Vacation SOMEWHAT REGULARLY in such a place. :)
NEW Work from home in a beautiful light-filled studio with flowers. -- Wow, it blows my mind to realize I am kind of doing this. The office isn't *always* light-filled, and I haven't put any flowers in it this week, but it *is* my space, I find it beautiful, and I work here every day.
NEW Learn to do really good portraits, preferably in paints, but in pen and inks if that’s what it takes. -- I am SO delighted to be able to move this to the "in progress" list.
NEW Make a family tree or in some other way delve deeply into my family history. -- Awesome, I'm so happy to add this to "in progress."
NEW Firm, love, and show off my butt. Not in a vulgar way. -- Working on this. :) Yoga, climbing, and walking hills are all helping to firm me up!
I could do this now, I guess, but I don’t want to or haven’t yet
33. Live in a different state.
34. Hike/walk a mountain in another country. This is more about the scenery and experience than the mountain or the exercise, so it doesn’t have to be Everest (or even close to it)!
36. Make a painting that is really beautiful (to my taste and no one else’s).
39. Find a beach I really love, and go there regularly. This can mean every day, or every few summers.
UPDATED 40. Be able to sew my own clothes (even if I don’t end up doing so). -- I really hope to be able to move this one to "in progress" by the end of 2009.
44. Have the kind of home my parents have, where people come over all the time, and the house always feels lively and full of laughter.
45. Take a sunrise hike… or just go someplace special to watch the sunrise.
46. Go to the desert in the early morning with Erik, and take pictures.
48. Re-learn to dance, though it doesn’t have to be modern.
49. Learn to sing folk songs, chants, and old old songs.
50. Sell cards that I draw, in however tiny a way.
51. Write a fan letter to an author.
52. Take Mommy to Chez Panisse Café, or equivalent.
53. Take Erik to Alinea, or equivalent.
54. Articulate my ideas on TSVW (note to self, not yet for public consumption!).
55. Own a pair of shoes I really love that I can actually walk in.
UPDATED 56. Learn how to sculpt or make pottery. -- This is definitely on hold for now.
UPDATED 57. Get good at watercolors. -- Same as above. I have too many other art goals to worry about these just yet.
59. Learn to like swimming.
Craziness I’ll save for the future, or don’t foresee happening anytime soon
60. Travel somewhat regularly.
61. Have a dog.
62. Raise children. Adopted kids count.
63. Be friends with someone who makes movies I like.
64. Plant/maintain our own fruit trees, especially lemon and orange.
67. Write and illustrate a children’s book, if only for my own kids (or my sisters’).
68. Live with Shra and Devin, either in the same (big) house or next door.
69. Paint the interior walls of my living space.
71. Keep chickens, unless I find out they’re smelly and gross and I don’t want them anymore.
72. Bake regularly for my kids and grandkids.
73. Visit Greece.
74. Visit Japan.
75. Travel throughout China.
UPDATED 76. Visit Prince Edward Island, just because I’ve always loved Anne of Green Gables. I guess this isn’t a must, but it’d be fun. -- We are seriously considering doing this next year, combining it with a trip to Toronto.
UPDATED 77. Be friends with someone who owns a bakery, store, café, or restaurant I like, so I can hang out there! -- I have gotten friendly with the lady who runs the cafe at our rock gym, and I like her baking and that space, so this one is kind of fulfilled for now.
78. Really, really splurge on something material but not silly (so: house but not sports car, coat but not strappy shoes).
79. If he still wants one by the time I can afford one, buy Daddo a houseboat. When we were kids Shra promised to someday buy him a house, and I promised a houseboat.
80. Go on a rollercoaster that scares me but doesn’t terrify me. Splash Mountain will work, but none of those horrible drop-straight-down things.
81. Be able to identify lots of trees and plants.
UPDATED 82. Live in a place that fills me with joy. I mean a geographical place, not the house itself. -- San Pablo doesn't fill me with joy, but it does fill me with satisfaction and gratitude quite often. That will do for now.
83. Do something crazy and lasting on a whim, and never regret it.
84. Have a bathtub big enough for two, preferably next to a window.
UPDATED 85. Live someplace where I can go to the farmers’ market (or its equivalent) multiple times a week, so I can eat local, seasonal, super-fresh food almost exclusively. -- Our CSA box is doing us well for now.
86. Host another party like our shindig, but this time for no “official” reason.
87. Learn more Shanghainese.
88. Learn more Cantonese.
89. Improve my French.
90. Visit Ireland.
91. Visit Denmark.
92. Invent something, maybe.
UPDATED 93. Invest time and work into something, and then be officially celebrated for it (on however small a scale, but not just within the household or something like that). -- I wonder if I will feel like the craft fair qualifies, after it's over. It's certainly the biggest public thing I've done in quite a while.
95. Take a cool train trip with Jackie on a classic line, like the Orient Express or Trans-Siberian Express.
96. Row/paddle a boat across a lake. Even just those little paddleboats at Vasona Lake will do. WITH SUN PROTECTION!!!
UPDATED 97. Do something (on this list perhaps?) I’ve always wanted to do “but it’s just too crazy.” Even the thought of this makes me feel light and liberated. -- I don't know, there are a whole lot of new and updated things on this list that make me feel light and liberated when I look them over. Maybe my definition of "it's just too crazy" has changed, so that nothing seems too crazy anymore. That is cool. I like that. I'll leave this item here for now, though, in case I ever do find something crazy enough that it still makes me reel and go, "wow, it's just too crazy."
98. RV road trip! And there must be the kind of sandwiches I ate on our family RV road trip when I was four: white bread, Kraft Singles, ham (or veggie ham), mayo, tomato, and iceberg lettuce. Ugh, but yes.
99. Visit Antarctica.
Wow, I am really amazed at how many changes I have made over the past 17 months. I have completed six more goals, made really solid progress on six of my in-progress goals and moved nine more goals to that list, and transformed my life enough to make me feel less urgent about six of the "not in the near future" items. The really awe-inspiring part of this is not that one can get so much done in a year and a half, but that the impossible can shift so surely toward the possible in such a short time.