Singing Owl over at Revgalblogpals gives us this fun Friday Five:
Four days of being mostly in bed with a really bad case of flu (do not worry--I will give no detail) has me pondering the fragility of life. LOL! Death, however, has been cheated in my case and I am up and taking nourishment. In that vein of thought, do you have a "Bucket List"? In other words, from the movie of the same name, five things you want to see, do, accomplish, etc. before you kick the bucket?
1. travel more -- I've always wanted to go to Scandinavia, where my family is from (and I still do, actually), but since Paris last year, I would like to go back to Paris again. It was magic. Actually, let's just make this a three-month tour of all of the places I have wanted to see (Paris, London, Stockholm, Amsterdam, etc.) but never thought I would have the time/money/ability. Also, I would keep a travel diary.
2. actually take time out to write every day. a large chunk of time. See what comes out.
3. publish. My dream is to publish some of my reflections with illustrations by my sister. I would love to publish an "art book" of some kind.
4. Learn to play that expensive recorder that has been sitting by my bed for the last ten years or so.
5. simplify my life, get rid of the things I don't need, and learn to live with just the things that are important, ao that I have time to do the things that are most important: creating things instead of mostly consuming (making hand-made gifts, writing stories, growing vegetables to share.)
......and though it's supposed to be only five, I have one more thing in the back of my mind, a wild dream of mine: a dream that someday people would flock to hear me speak or preach -- about the wildness of grace, about the "hint half guessed, the gift half understood" -- the way that God is incarnate in the world, and in us -- in hidden, small and powerful ways.
11 comments:
Hmm, you had to go and mention the record. I've got one tucked in the drawer here that I haven't played in years. Time to dust off my finger positions and learn how to hit those high notes and flats/sharps with a bit more ease...
Amsterdam--spent six whole hours there on a layover and loved it! Am dying (this is a bucket list) to get back!
And yes, writing. Maybe alternate years of BE could be WE.
I meant recorder. It's time for lunch...
Wonderful list! I admire your sense of discipline for daily writing.
Your vision of becoming a WiseWoman in the Wilderness is beautiful indeed.
Finally, let me echo altar ego's suggestion to alternate between BE and WE!
i think you're onto something diane... in simplifying your exterior world, it streamlines the interior world... and suddenly i think you'll be making more time for doing the things you really, truly, deeply yearn to do...
which i would also add is part of your call. ministry appears in a variety of ways, but as 'pastors' i think we sometimes lose sight that the gifts we have within... the yearnings we have... those are part of the call, and God wants us to use those...
I have the same problems with a travel diary as I do with blogging: when I have the most on my mind I'm also the busiest actually doing some things, so I have less time to write. But it is so good to have something to look back at for reminders and to straighten out the memory. I at least put down the when, where, what in my diary when I travel, even if I can't get down the why and the reflection.
You have a profound list, even if it was written in the middle of lots of other things. Your writing ideas will come true. The one about you and your sister working together sounds especially good.
I'm another that used to play the recorder - I think I could still play "Donna Donna Donna" by heart. The kids in third grade always had a unit on the recorder and that inspired my husband to take it up -when he hit the high notes the cat would come running and try to make him stop playing.
Great list -- I think we should all do #5!
An impressive list.
Three come to mind for me: 1. Finish writing and publish the 9-10 novels that are now partly on paper and mostly in my head. 2. Visit Spain, Languedoc (again), and Tuscany. 3. Finally become fluent in Spanish. I would like (4) to become a transparent and compassionate old man but that borders so much on holiness that it aims high. I suppose # 5 should be to have my house organized and tidy.
Wonderful....
Diane, I would flock to hear you preach.
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