You know the meme that goes around: "What are the 100 things you must do before you die?" Or, "What are the Top 10 Things you want to do before you die?" Etc.
The other day I was thinking about this, quite humorously, I assure you, and I thought back over my life and how my attitudes have changed. I've done many things, and many were things that never would have made my list, for I would have thought them either impossible or impractical or, well, totally out of character for me. Or, seriously....who would ever PLAN for some of the crazy things we do or that happen to us???
I've decided, therefore, to make a list just off the top of my head, of the following things:
Top 10 Things I Did that Still Surprise the Hell Out of Me:
(In no particular order)
1. Become an "elite athlete."
2. Live in Mexico
3. Win a 4th place medal at a State Competition, competing in Downhill Skiing (Giant Slalom). 2 years later, come within two-tenths of a second of qualifying for Nationals.
4. Rappel from the 6th floor of a building having to overcome a serious threat to my life on the way down.
5. Run in high heels through a series of dark alleys in downtown Minneapolis with a friend trying to escape a guy who was determined to follow her home.
6. Get kicked off of one of the most beautiful ranches in MN for reporting animal neglect, (and getting caught by the ranch owner).
7. Adopt a greyhound (finally!) only to lose him to bone cancer and have to drive him by myself to the vet to put him down.
8. Earn a Master's Degree in Theology
9. Write an Icon
10. Visit religious communities with the serious intent to enter one of them.
Coming up with that list made me think a little more. I used to have that previously cited "list of things to do before I die." Well, now that religious life looks like it might actually happen, other than paying my debt off to make it possible, I thought I should make a different kind of list.
Top Things I Want to Do Before Entering Religious Life:
1. Visit friends in Ohio!
2. Visit friends in Montana!
3. Go skiing out west, in the mountains, and enter a Downhill race, akin to the Birds of Prey Downhill.
4. Make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
5. Become a Jockey and ride a horse to victory in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. The same horse, mind you!
6. Finish the novel I began when I was 12 and actually get it published.
7. Add blue streaks to my hair.
8. Go sailing on the ocean
9. Go deep sea fishing
10. Buy a hobby farm, turn it into a domestic animal rescue, turn it into a Catholic retreat center for troubled kids. (What????)
OK, I suppose I should tag a few people. Maybe they can't exactly cover my last "Top 10" but this part can be customized to the respondents proper state in life.
You're IT! GO!
The Crescat
Cathy of Alex at Recovering Dissident
Terry Nelson at Abbey Roads
Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy
Joe at Defend us in Battle
Anglea at Where Angels Blog
5 comments:
Thanks for the tag...I think. Do these 10 things have to be real, or can I make them up?
You can totally make them up if it pleases you! :-)
The only reason I asked, is because as I've been thinking over the stuff that's gone on in my life, I realized that I have never done anything as so cool as rappelling down the side of a building. While I'm supposing the circumstances that forced you to do so were indeed dangerous, it still seems way cool to me.
Larry ~ Well, you've probably done somethings I think are supremely cool and wish I could have done. In looking back, I don't know that I think rappelling down the side of the building was really *that* cool. It only sounds like it is. It would be WAY cooler, for example, to climb and then rappel down Devil's Tower (Black Hills, I think). I have friends who have done that.
So! Come on, out with your list!
My list is up.
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