The List of All Lists
It started innocently enough.
I mentioned to my darling husband how I admired his pursuit of his hobby (he plays poker), and how I'd love to have a thing like that in my life.
I'd love to have the kind of hobby/activity/passion/interest/focus he has and I'm sure I could -- if I only knew what it might be.
We started talking, and I started dreaming out loud.
There are things I like, I love, I enjoy. There are things I've wanted to try but never have. There are things I'm not doing, but I could and should.
I started making lists - big lists.
I started with things I want to try and to do. Then I thought about the values we have as individuals, as parents and as a family, and am working actively on incorporating those values into my daily choices. I'm feeling that fulfillment isn't about being busy or having things, but about experiencing my life aligned with the things I believe are Important (with a capital I). I'm not going to share here a discussion of my values, though I'm sure if you read me, you see a lot of them anyway.
I am a work in progress.
We happened to have our talk over drinks in the afternoon on the rooftop of a hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The hotel is conveniently adjacent to the stunning Los Angeles Central Library, one of my very favorite places in the city, if not the world.
In my browsing, I found and borrowed Jill Smolinski's The Next Thing on My List -- the cover, title and description grabbed me, and I was not disappointed. I won't tell the story (read it yourself, it's good), but it tells the tale of the changes in a person following a life list.
A what? (I'll make it easy: read this article in the New York Times. Or check another great list from Maggie Mason at Mighty Girl.)
I wasn't thinking so much of creating a life list -- I wanted to get some ideas written down to keep my life in action, always moving forward.
It started as a list of 40 things to do before I turn 40, but as I wrote, I realized that some of these things are too important to rush. A bigger list begat the beginnings of my big list, and when I began sharing the list with my husband, it grew bigger, wilder, farther reaching.
I have a short list of a few local dance schools and need to coordinate my schedule for adult beginner ballet; I am more than half way through ordering the photos to complete Ellie's baby book (mind you, she'll be four in October and might finish it herself if I don't hurry).
Though I may be mostly dropping off kids at camp and running to work, people, I am going places!
What's on your list? Really. I'd love to know.
I mentioned to my darling husband how I admired his pursuit of his hobby (he plays poker), and how I'd love to have a thing like that in my life.
I'd love to have the kind of hobby/activity/passion/interest/focus he has and I'm sure I could -- if I only knew what it might be.
We started talking, and I started dreaming out loud.
There are things I like, I love, I enjoy. There are things I've wanted to try but never have. There are things I'm not doing, but I could and should.
I started making lists - big lists.
I started with things I want to try and to do. Then I thought about the values we have as individuals, as parents and as a family, and am working actively on incorporating those values into my daily choices. I'm feeling that fulfillment isn't about being busy or having things, but about experiencing my life aligned with the things I believe are Important (with a capital I). I'm not going to share here a discussion of my values, though I'm sure if you read me, you see a lot of them anyway.
I am a work in progress.
We happened to have our talk over drinks in the afternoon on the rooftop of a hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The hotel is conveniently adjacent to the stunning Los Angeles Central Library, one of my very favorite places in the city, if not the world.
In my browsing, I found and borrowed Jill Smolinski's The Next Thing on My List -- the cover, title and description grabbed me, and I was not disappointed. I won't tell the story (read it yourself, it's good), but it tells the tale of the changes in a person following a life list.
A what? (I'll make it easy: read this article in the New York Times. Or check another great list from Maggie Mason at Mighty Girl.)
I wasn't thinking so much of creating a life list -- I wanted to get some ideas written down to keep my life in action, always moving forward.
It started as a list of 40 things to do before I turn 40, but as I wrote, I realized that some of these things are too important to rush. A bigger list begat the beginnings of my big list, and when I began sharing the list with my husband, it grew bigger, wilder, farther reaching.
- publish an article in a national magazine
- learn to dance
- perform in a ballet recital
- learn Hebrew before both children are fluent
- finish Ellie's baby book
- achieve perfect vision
- (an elective plastic surgery I'm hoping insurance might cover but I'm not going to describe here)
- fix my shoulder
- teach Jake and Ellie (possibly also Rafe) to ski
- rent vacation home in Santa Ynez
- go to Catalina Island
- rent a home in France and travel through France & Italy
- visit Lake Como, Florence, Rome
- write a will
- have the flexible and fulfilling career of my dreams
- launch my business, be wildly successful
- learn to tell a good joke
- get back to my pre-Ellie weight (for real! I mean it this time! no, seriously.)
- catch up on writing kids' birthday letters
- learn to take amazing photographs
- go to Disneyworld
- take flight in a hot air balloon
- see Mount Rushmore
- take kids to Israel (hopefully with their grandparents); hike Masada again
- go to the Oscars (or a real Hollywood Oscar party)
- take an extensive food and wine tour through Napa Valley
- dine at the French Laundry
- teach someone (not related to me) how to read
- take a gondola ride in Venice
- buy Murano glass in Venice
- ride a donkey to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
- attempt to surf (where the water is warm)
- take a cross country road trip
- attend Jazz Fest in New Orleans again
- become a bat mitzvah
- go on safari
- see the pyramids
- sail through the Greek Isles
- summer in the Hamptons or Cape Cod or Nantucket
- have an occasion to wear a ball gown
- make a new recipe every week
- try a new restaurant every month
- take an annual girl's weekend - with friends or alone
- sit with Ivy Brown on her stoop, drinking Abita beer, eating some kind of Kosher/Cajun fusion
- ride horseback on a beach at sunset
- own a luxury car without door dings or goldfish crumbs
- see the American Idols in person
- enjoy the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower
- live life without cancer, heart disease or diabetes
- maintain a kitchen adjacent herb garden
- commission a piece of art
- walk along the Great Wall of China
- London: changing of the guards, crown jewels, tea, Harrods
- whitewater rafting on the Colorado River
- send our children to college without incurring debt
- send our children to the best colleges for them
- make challah from scratch
- take a glacier cruise in Alaska
- go to the Olympics
- create or buy our dream home
I have a short list of a few local dance schools and need to coordinate my schedule for adult beginner ballet; I am more than half way through ordering the photos to complete Ellie's baby book (mind you, she'll be four in October and might finish it herself if I don't hurry).
Though I may be mostly dropping off kids at camp and running to work, people, I am going places!
What's on your list? Really. I'd love to know.
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9 comments:
Your post has made me revisit a life list I wrote a year ago. It's not on such a broad scale as yours - I don't have 'live life free of cancer etc', though I love the thought that it's completely within my control! Here's four of them;
1. do two charity runs by August 2008 and raise £200 for charity - well, I've done one and raised £145. Pat on the back, might never have got around to that if I hadn't written it down.
2. be fit and sexy. Ha ha. I wrote that down! Funny thing is though, I am fitter and Recaro continues to think I'm sexy. Big tick.
3. Keeping in touch friends... better than I usually do, but could still do better yet.
4. Live debt free. Ahem. I'm working on that one.
I need to ponder this one for a bit, but I think I may just create my own list.
Our lists would have a lot of overlaps. I need to write mine out and see how many.
Off the top of my head?
Paris and London with my girls
Live long enough to hold every single grandchild in my arms
Stay healthy and die old
Write a book that gets published (the writing part is easy the other, not so much)
See each of my children graduate from college and fall in love with their soul mate
Attend every kind of church there is
Learn to control my anxiety and fear that something will happen to a loved one
Swim in a warm sea with my children playing near me and my husband in a hammock waiting with a cold drink
Love the list, especially the mix of big and small, relatively easy to accomplish and shooting for the moon.
You know I've been lucky enough to cross a bunch of stuff off my list in the last few years, but I have a new item that is very mundane and appears to be impossible for me:
* Finally find a job where my boss is not a complete whacko
:)
I will be diligently working on that one in the near future....
What a great list! Very inspiring.
Finish the house!
When I've done that I'll make a list!
Karen - this list is inspiring and wonderful! Somehow, I a not surprised that we share many wishes in common: 7, 15, 16, 22, 27, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 42, 43, 49, 55, 56, 58, 60
I'm working on 5
I've done: 10, 11, 24, 26, 33, 39, 48, 52, 53, 57, and 59
no. 4 is no fair, since I already know Hebrew.
I'll make you an offer: To work together on any or all of the numbers we have in common. In the next 12 months. Are you game?
What a very cool list! I need to put mine down on paper, too b/c I've just got many similar goals swimmin around in my head. I'd love to teach my family how to ski as Ben gets older and I'd love to attend an Oscar type bash one day, too!! The goldfish cracker/sippy cup laden car is my future for a while I think. *sigh* A banana was hurled onto my back seat yesterday, too. neat.
I will work on my list tonight and let you know when I'm done. I loved reading through your list. Very inspiring!
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