12 frogs

When I saw Krista’s 50 Things Before 50 list, I told her it was such a great idea that I’d rip it off and post it on my blog, too. But a funny thing happened on the way to executing this meme: math. Krista (oh she of the recent birthday) has eighteen years to accomplish the things on her list, and I’ve got closer to twelve. So I’ve belatedly decided that since she has 50% more time, it’s okay if she has a 50% longer list than me.

So how did I wind up with 33 things instead of 25? Since she did make it easy by creating her awesome list first, I didn’t feel quite right counting all the items I am directly stealing from her. (Or, as I prefer to think of it: no wonder we are friends, she’s got eight things on her list that would be on mine, too.)

So in alphabetical order here are some things I want to do before I turn fifty, which as it turns out, isn’t this giant abstract amount of time from now [with the things I'm copying from Krista noted by the # on her list]:

1. Continue to have an awesome marriage [#3]
2. Continue to have interesting and challenging work
3. Cross Canada by train
4. Draw, even though I think I can’t. (I can’t as in “that does not look real, it looks malformed” not can’t “my fingers don’t function well enough to hold a pen”)
5. Get more tattoos
6. Go snorkeling [#16]
7. Go fly a kite, literally, like I used to when I was a kid
8. Go to the opera
9. Keep a plant alive
10. Learn to do stop motion animation
11. Learn that emotions are never the enemy
12. Make art
13. Make a book
14. Make little fabric monster critters to photograph
15. Make peace with my body [#47]
16. Practice daily meditation
17. Publish fiction
18. Read all the books on my unread bookshelf
19. Recognize which things are really an inside job and do that work
20. See the Northern Lights [#29]
21. See low and high tides at the Bay of Fundy
22. Stand under a giant redwood tree
23. Show photographs in a gallery [#21]
24. Sleep outside under the stars
25. Spend at least a week somewhere I don’t speak the language
26. Stop telling myself about the things I can’t do
27. Swim in the Pacific Ocean
28. Walk barefoot on moss in the forest
29. Visit Iceland [#22]
30. Visit Norway [#23]
31. Visit someplace with exotic, warm beaches
32. Take a retreat at a monastery or convent [#38]
33. Take a sabbatical