09 December 2006

life goals / bucket list

These escaped my brain the other day (updated Jun. '12):

*(new)Visit Isle Royale National Park, a remote island-park in Lake Superior with bears, wolves, and moose
*(new)Visit Magee Marsh during spring warbler migration


*get on a boat in the ocean to the point where I can't see land at all
*read 1,000 books
*climb a 6,000m mountain peak
*visit the Galapagos islands
*hug General Sherman 
*visit Jason deCaires Taylor's underwater coral statues
*hike the 100-mile wilderness in Maine
*own and read all the works of Wendell Berry
*live one month out of a backpack along a trail
*live one day without water
*live one day without hearing human words
*let someone else (other than my wife) make an important life-decision for me (moving, children, job)
*own and care for a cow or goat or lamb

*hunt a wild animal, then slaughter, cook, and eat it (Fall 2013, duck hunting at Salamonie Reservoir)


*live one year without a personal vehicle (achieved by Aug. '11, well 11 months or so)
*be a father to a child (achieved by Aug. '11)
*live two years in an intentional community (move for the people, not the job) (achieved Jan '12, WMF community in El Alto, Bolivia, sorta)
*live one day without speaking (achieved Dec, '10, 36 hours of silence near Lake Titicaca, Bolivia)
*get a tattoo (achieved July, '10, Love Tattoo, Jenison, MI)
*live in a city of 500,000+ people (achieved Jan '10, Cochabamba, Bolivia)
*live somewhere where I am the minority (race, gender, income level, religion) (achieved Jan '10, Cochabamba, Bolivia. race, gender, income level, religion)\
*get in the crowd of the Colbert Report (no longer possible, ended in 2014)

Kind of long shot, interesting tings:
*swim between continental plates at Iceland's Thingvellir Lake (silfra)

5 comments:

  1. Nice post.

    Why don't you move out to Downtown LA (#1) in January 2008 for no other reason but to live in community (#2). We'll use public transport (#3) and you can spend a month with me on the PCT (#4). On day 12, in the desert section, we'll walk alone (#7). In early 2009 I'll decide (#9) that all of our families should move to Guatemala (#8).

    That's my part anyway. :)

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  2. You never give up, do you? *sigh-smile-dream* That's certainly creative.

    Per your suggestion, already looking at opportunities in Bucktown, Chicago. Also eastside Indianapolis.

    #4, #6 & #7 may be within reach in May on the Appalachian Trail.

    #1 & #8 could be achieved in just one move away from Marion

    #13 could happen as soon as I get outside and shoot a rabbit and skin it with my bare hands (I heard you can do that...?)

    If I could get almost have of these in seven months... is that too easy? Ok, words are cheap. Time to get busy...

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  3. Anonymous1:13 PM

    that's some list.

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  4. I think I may have finally come up with some good ones:

    - Own only what I need.
    - Eat only what I need.
    - Make fasting a regular part of my life.
    - Fill one fourth or one third of my waking hours with devoted prayer (not mental, spontaneous, "continual" prayer).
    - Pray as much with other people as I do by myself.
    - Learn what it means to believe in/trust God.
    - Be a theologian.
    - Preach the good news of Jesus Christ to people who weren't expecting at all to hear it. Make this a regular part of my life.
    - Pastor/teach/'disciple' an infant church to maturity.

    There's plenty more, but for now this should suffice.

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  5. SDH-

    Nice list. I guess I'd have trouble with it because it's not specific enough. Ambiguity would lead me nowhere.

    As for fasting, I suggest the Daniel Fast, a vegan diet on Wednesdays and Fridays as followed by Orthodox Christians. I just heard about it in CT's latest installment of the Christian Vision Project: Andy Crouch's "The Importance of Knowing What's Important" (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/december/25.36.html)

    ReplyDelete