life list

I have mixed feelings about life lists and their place on a blog like this one. To post? Not to post? Is it relevant? Does writing it down make me accountable to someone other than to myself? Gah. I’m not sure. But while I think about it I think I’ll keep it here.

This is a living document which will change over time. The difference is that I’ve added in a few life-listy types of things that I’ve already done. (To keep me motivated!)

Many of these things are incredibly out of reach right now (notice how many are travel-related?), but someday I’d really like to:

• snorkel in Australia
• spend a month living on a boat
• learn basic Italian (preferably in Italy)
• stay in an ice hotel overnight
• go ice fishing
• learn to kayak (or canoe?) and go on a multiday trip
• take a multiday bike trip somewhere in Europe
• hike (at least part of!) the Bruce Trail
• take a weeklong vow of silence while living at a monestary
• ski down an Olympic run and not kill myself
• savour a pastry and hot cup of coffee in a Parisian cafe
• live in France (for a month? maybe more…)
• fly in a hot air balloon
• fly in a two-seater plane
• try parasailing
• go on a cruise
• go dogsledding
• give a speech in front of 500 people
• write a children’s book ….
• … and see it on a bookstore shelf
• have my photos published in print for others to see
• see my photos on someone’s wall
• have something of mine hanging in a gallery
• take singing lessons. And sing. Somewhere. Eep.
• be able to run for 30 minutes without stopping
• ride a horse up the side of a mountain
• go ziplining
• cross Canada by train (look at this!)
• spend Christmas at Jasper Park Lodge
• sleep under the stars
• helicopter over the Grand Canyon (as a passenger, not a pilot)
• steer a small plane, even for a minute
• climb a (BIG) tree (there’s a place in Wakefield that’s all about tree climbing!)
• ride an elephant
• own a dog
• walk along a volcano in Hawaii
• drink Jamaican Blue coffee in Montego Bay
• eat sushi in Tokyo
• snowmobile across the tundra in Iqaluit
• visit the Charles Bridge in Prague
• help save a building from being torn down
• get married
• buy a house
• live off the grid
• have children and
• … live long enough to get to know my grandchildren
• buy a sweet little house in a neighborhood I love