Before I Die...

Last night, during my meanderings on the internet, I noticed a common theme take shape.  First, I read this, zero sum, a wonderful post by Michael David Lockhart.  Then I read Before I Die, a quote by Candy Chang shared on Odyssey, a site I'm in love with, which lead me to Chang's project who, "..with help from friends and neighbors..turned the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood into a giant chalkboard to invite people to share what is important to them."  I am in awe with such a beautiful idea put into action.  She also provides a link to submit our own dreams online here.  Read the list, it's breathtaking.

Finally, I read bentlily's Ode to Tears...and my heart knows thirst as well, to experience an authentic life, lived and loved to it's fullest potential, holding nothing back, going for my dreams, from the simplest ones to the grandest.  It doesn't even matter if they don't manifest before I die, just as long as I try.  None of it has to be perfect, only that I begin, and keep going, grace to grace, one by one.  Here is a short list of things I still dream about experiencing before my sojourn through time is done...

I have a T-shirt I wear that I received from Writer's Digest that says, "Pulitzer Prize Winner in Training."  I don't necessarily dream about achieving that prize, but wearing the T-shirt reminds me how important writing is to me.  I'll go for published...lots :).

I want to be a witness to my grandchild's birth, watch my daughter and son-in-law raise him/her.  Be a part of his life, spoil him rotten, watch him grow to adulthood, loving him all the way. 

I want to see this, the Cumberland Falls Moonbow in Kentucky...not too far from where I live :D.  I just learned about it.  I had never heard of a moonbow!  How cool is that??  Look it up, it's worth it :)

And this, Ohio's Great Serpent Mound

Those are just a few of the things I dream of doing.  There is so much more!  It's more than a bucket list, because I don't think we should wait until we reach a certain age.  Life is too short as it is.  I've seen too many folks waiting for retirement, or waiting for the perfect time, waiting for the perfect mate, waiting to love, waiting to live, waiting, waiting...  We waste precious time waiting....

We can start now...first with allowing that our dreams are possible, and then by making a decision we are gonna do it, then taking action, one little step at a time until that dream is fulfilled. 

I want to be like the man in bentlily's poem, when I'm at the end of my life sayin' to my love, "It was exquisite." 

How 'bout you?  What do you dream of doing?

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