The List

Things I must do before I die:

1) Explore Venice alone. Visit the store from Summertime with Katharine Hepburn. Float along in a gondola, and ask the gondolier where the best food can be found. Eat said food. Buy a red dress and heels, proceed to act Italian, only betrayed by my obvious American accent. Admire the Italian men, try to find out if they really can make a girl feel like a woman.

2) Run through the Irish moors barefoot in the evening after it just finished raining. Trace patterns in the dew with my hands. Wait until the sun sets and dance around in the moonlight, unafraid, catching glimpses of fey and leprechauns in the wood. Grin and dance on, accept the lapse of reality.

3) Visit the birthplace of religion- Jerusalem. Be a tourist at first, then relax into it, take one day at a time. Take a bus out to the desert with a backpack containing a canteen, crackers, sunscreen, canned goods, a sweatshirt, and a sleeping bag. Navigate through the empty, cleansing dunes with nothing to guide but the stars and a walking stick. Find God.

4) View Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower at night and watch the city glitter. Visit a French cafe and order something sophisticated. Don't stay too long, beware of locals.

5) Fall madly in love. Either so quick I won't know what hit me, or slowly, so I can never discern where we stopped being friends and when I started loving him. Marriage, a white dress, a dance with Dad, and seeing no one else in the room but him. Work hard at it.

6) Have a baby, adopted or not. Revel in selecting a name, the perfect name. Love the little fingers gripping my own. Be proud and happy (and a little sad) that my baby will grow.

7) Walk the Great Wall of China, and admire a secluded Buddhist temple in China. Eat real Chinese food and compare it to take out. Have the best cup of tea I'll ever have the pleasure to sip. Inhale the damp smell of the tea leaves, empty the mind, and taste.

8) Help a stranger, a friend, change their life for the better. Always be pure, keep trust, and faith that things turn out alright in the end. Be true.

9) Read. Read until I have a library and enough dreams to last me a lifetime. Live not only though the books but in action and by learning from them. Finish writing a novel. Edit it, print it out. Either keep it for myself or poke around to see if I can be published. Cherish the raw manuscript no matter what I choose to do with it.

10) Do something fun and out of character (but secretly more in character than ever before- that's the trick!) once a week. Predictable yet unpredictable. Keep the spark alive.

*smile*