Below is an ongoing list of things I’d like to accomplish over the course of my life, however long or short it may be. These things aren’t altogether relational or spiritual. Simply, they are the things I hope to experience or develop as part of my daily living. They range from outrageously expensive and difficult to overcoming the basic issue of my stubborness. For the sake of encouragement, I included an item I’ve already achieved. Consider it an attempt at optimism.

- Run another marathon, and this time do it faster than five hours and 30 minutes.
- Get paid for my design work.
- Stay in a cottage in the English countryside while touring the U.K.
- Purchase a Nikon D90 or D3100 and finally give in to the photographer in me.
- Learn to ski properly.
- Go on a tour of lighthouses in New England.
- Drink a cup of coffee from the original Starbucks in Seattle.
- Take the boys to the beach for the first time.
- See The Killers (again) in concert.
- Write a children’s book about adoption.
- Go to a Green Bay Packers football game.
- Take my parents on a vacation and pay for the whole thing.
- Master the art of gluten-free baking.
- Take an Alaskan cruise.
- Build a house.
- Earn a graduate degree.
- Say goodbye to sugar cravings.
- Do yoga/pilates at least three times per week.
- Learn to swim and become unafraid of the water.
- Pay it forward on a regular basis.
- Re-learn French.
- Learn to say “no” and not feel guilty about it.
- Pass down family stories to the boys.
- Listen more intently and, for Pete’s sake, stop finishing people’s sentences for them.
- Define my own personal style and be content with it.
- Re-learn to play the piano.
- Go back to all of the places I lived as a child.
- Stop eating past 7:30 p.m.
- Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando and let my wand choose me.
- Help the boys identify and cultivate their talents.
- Love more deeply and intentionally.
- Live on less caffeine. One cup is sufficient.
- Enjoy real Italian food in Italy.
- Take my vitamins everyday, not every few days.
- Help another couple adopt a child.
- Travel back to Munich, Germany, to celebrate Oktoberfest - now that I’m actually old enough to have a beer. Prost!
- Spend New Year’s Eve in Fiji, just once.
- Have space for a pottery wheel and kiln in the garage to make my own set of dishes.
- Reconcile regrets and mistakes as “learning experiences.”
- Learn to knit.
- Go on a second honeymoon.
- Join a grassroots FairTax group as an active participant and supporter.
- Run a west coast race, like the Big Sur Half Marathon.
- Build a website from the ground up.
- Develop an outlook of optimism rather than always assuming and fearing the worst.