Saturday, April 08, 2006

How to spend the rest of your life

This week an acquaintance asked me in an email to take a moment and tell how I would spend the rest of my life. Aside from wanting to say oh, you know, the usual, engender world peace and end humger forever, it was just an email, and I didn’t know this person well, so I said something like the following:

I have an immediate desire to throw my jeans in the car and take off for a month out west, stopping at the Badlands, Little Bighorn, traveling down the coast of CA, see the big redwoods, stop in New Mexico and see the pueblos. This would be a non-destination destination trip, meaning I could stop whenever and wherever I want. There would not be camping :-) I'd like to see the Kentucky Derby, the winter Olympics, and walk on the Great Wall of China. I hear Edinburgh and Salzburg are not to be missed. I have a great photo of Mont St Michel, but that was over 20 years ago.

Ok, so how I'd like to spend the rest of my life, in a nutshell: I want to cultivate a state of mind that is happy, unafraid, fully present, free, open and so on. Learning is my passion... I want to make a great discovery. Please don't ask me to define that! Also, don't tell anyone! It's a secret. Also: enhance, increase, and enjoy much of what I already have: loving family and friends (maybe a significant other or soul mate, maybe not, who knows? I lost my crystal ball), health, fitness, doing something new every day. I love doing new things and going new places. I will not, however, try bungee jumping. I would like to move into freelancing full time. All of the above items are inter-related. But I do have one last one...I'd like to live by the water. Still, if that doesn't happen, I don't have any regrets.


Those of you who read my blog know what I really want is to achieve a state of grace. But in the meanwhile....I want to thank you for the sharing wine and lasagna and dessert, and this time I’d like to do a Monterey steak rub (never done it!! suggestions welcome!) with Merlot. I have a vision of friends coming over for dinner and having a good time ... tell me, in a nutshell, how you’d like to spend the rest of your life.

5 comments:

Vicky said...

I heard Seu Jorge on the radio today. When asked what he would like to see in America, he replied that he would like to see more people smiling and happy. That's how I would like to spend the rest of my life - and I think what you suggested would be just the ticket!

Vicky

Theresa Williams said...

No clocks, no schedules. Lots of time to read and write and see the world with Allen. That doesn't necessarily mean traveling. It could be just in our own back yard.

V said...

I`d like to find the courage to write. I mean, that point where you can choose to write. And you don`t open Word.
I guess I`m talking of discipline. I seldom change a word in my posts; what you get is pretty much my first attempt at the thought.
I`ve now completed a novel & 1/3rd of its sequel and I have never written a plot outline. It`s only in the last month that I`ve even listed the major & minor characters
to refer to. I`ve always pulled them from my mind. Absurd, no?
V

Cynthia said...

I want to spend the rest of my life growing in and sharing wisdom, love and hope. I want to draw closer the great Creator and find mysteries within mysteries. Like you, I want to find that state of grace.

Erin Berger Guendelsberger said...

I would like to spend the rest of my life growing. I want to grow intellectually, spiritually, emotionally. I want to grow to understand more about myself, my loved ones, and my not-so-loved ones. I don't want a single month to pass in which I haven't learned or experienced something new. I want to grow to give and receive love better. And, perhaps most importantly, I want to be happy with my growth.