a quest for plenty: my list of 100 dreams

Well, that was more difficult than I expected. When it came right down to it, coming up with 100 things that made my eyes light up or my heart beat faster took a little thinking. I got to 50 pretty quickly, then another 10 here or there, and finally took to reading other people's lists to find my final 10. And then, because some of those lists are awesome, I ended up with 102.

One of the things that strikes me is how limited the 'Nurture Romance' section is for me. I don't know if that's because I am resigned in that area or because so much of what I do dare to dream about romance I'm too chicken to commit to paper/blog. Little of column a, little of column b and lots of room to grow, I guess.

So, here it is - my list of 102 dreams. And now for the fun part - making them happen!

FREE TO BE ME 

• Be debt free
• Create a generated-from-anywhere income of more than $80,000 net/year (in 2015 CDN dollars)
• Write a novel 
• Complete the ‘Ultimate Canadian Book Tour’ promoting my novel at independent book sellers in all 10 provincial and 3 territorial capitals
• Win a short story or essay contest
• Write a book with Nathan - Hungry Ghost Mom or other
• Be paid to sing
• Sing a song while accompanying myself on the piano at an open mic night
• Take a week-long solo writing retreat during storm season in Tofino
• Attend a writing course at The Banff Centre
• Create a cozy, inviting, dedicated writing space in my home 
• Take a year of shmita
• Have my picture taken with Alan Thomas Doyle
• Have my picture taken with Michael Bublé

KNOW & BE KNOWN 

• Learn to scuba dive
• Master a second UN working language (French or Spanish) 
• Earn a PhD
• Spend a day in the British Museum
• Visit the Smithsonian Institutes
• Take a photography course
• Earn my own media pass to Jamaica Jazz Festival
• Take a painting class 
• Take a trip with Josh and really listen to who he is
• Learn to social dance 
• swing 
• waltz 
• two-step
• others? 
• Attend the World Domination Summit
• Present at an official TED event
• Be an invited (paid) speaker at a writing conference
• Teach at a college (again)
• Be a writer-in-residence
• Get 20,000 Twitter followers
• Have 5,000+ blog visits/month

NURTURE ROMANCE 

• Be kissed atop the Eiffel Tower
• Get married on a beach
• Trace my lover's laugh lines as he ages
• Make love under the Northern Lights

HAVE GRAND ADVENTURES

• Ski Whistler
• Ski in the alps
• Ski a black diamond run (on purpose ;-)) 
• Swim with a whale shark in the wild
• Land a jump on a mountain bike
• Drive a convertible from Los Angeles to Las Vegas
• Ride the Rocky Mountaineer
• Stand up on a surfboard for at least 15 seconds in Hawaii
• Play craps in Vegas
• Sleep in a working lighthouse
• Take a glamping safari in the Rift Valley
• Watch silver back gorillas in Rwanda
• Crew a sailboat
• Go salmon fishing on the ocean with my Dad
• Live in a float home (or on a boat) for a year
• Drive the entire Pacific Coast Highway 
• Ride a roller coaster that goes upside down

MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

• Be Secret Santa to a children's shelter
• Work with Habitat for Humanity somewhere in the tropic zone 
• Work for the UN
• Volunteer with a literacy organization
• Teach creative writing to people in recovery from addiction/mental illness
• Serve on the board of UNBC
• Sponsor a bursary for single moms studying the arts at UNBC
• Give a stranger $100 
• Pay for the groceries of the person ahead of me in line

SHE'S SO FANCY

• Own a pair of Louboutins
• Fly first class 
• Stay at the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort
• Stay at a 5 Star hotel on Central Park
• Live in a downtown loft condo in a major city
• Buy a scarf at the flagship Hermès store in Paris
• Have more original art than prints
• Ride a gondola in Venice
• Attend the Academy Awards - inside the building! 

SEE THE WORLD

• Complete a 7-day kayak holiday in the Salish Sea
• Take my mom on a trip of her choosing
• Take Nathan on a history tour through Germany, France, Ireland, & Scotland 
• Travel on a round-the-world airline ticket
• Visit the Galapagos
• Attend Bachannal in Kingston
• Hand feed a sloth in Costa Rica
• Have a ‘just us’ holiday with Shan - no kids, no guys, lots of wine and laughter and tears
• Visit all of the ferry-accessible Gulf Islands
• Saturna
• North Pender
• South Pender
• Mayne 
• Salt Spring
• Galiano
• Penelakut
• Thetis
• Gabriola
• Bowen
• Hornby
• Denman
• Texada
• Quadra
• Cortez
• See the autumn colours of the eastern seaboard
• Live one year in London
• Tour the White House
• Live one year in New York City
• Live one year in Kenya or Tanzania
• Visit Zanzibar 
• Take the ultimate Gospel road-trip through the Southern U.S. - (Where would that take me? Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans?)
• Live beside the Caribbean for AT LEAST a year
• Visit Yellowstone Park 
• Visit Stonehenge
• Attend Carnaval in Québec City
• Soak in a natural hot spring in Iceland
• Swim [or perhaps just dip a toe] in all of the oceans & seas 
  (It turns out the International Hydrographic Institute recognises 66 seas, oceans, straits, channels and bays and the list hasn’t been updated since 1953, so I’m going with my own abridged version): 
• Pacific (north and south of the equator)
• Atlantic (north and south of the equator)
• Arctic
• Indian
• Mediterranean 
• Caribbean
• China
• Bering
• Baltic
• Japan 
• Arabian
• North
• Red
• Dead
• Visit the ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’
• Great Wall of China (China)
• Petra (Jordan)
• Christ the Redeemer (Brazil)
• Machu Picchu (Peru)
• Chichen Itza (Mexico)
• Colosseum (Italy)
• Taj Mahal(India)
• Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt - only remaining original Wonder)
• Visit every Caribbean Island nation/territory
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Barbados
• Cuba
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Grenada
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago
• France*
• Guadalope
• *Martinique
• Saint Barthélemy
• Saint Martin
• Netherlands 
• Aruba
• Curaçao
• Sint Maarten
• Britain
• Anguilla
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Montserrat
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• U.S.
• Puerto Rico

HOTTER BY THE DECADE 

I turn a-shocking-number old on January 30, 2018 and am determined to make that decade sizzle!

• Reach a BMI <25
• Maintain a BMI <25 for a year
• Maintain a BMI <25 for 5 years
• Master all 26 postures in Bikram Yoga
• Standing Deep Breathing (Pranayama)
• Half Moon Pose (Ardha-Chandrasana)
• Awkward Pose (Utkatasana)
• Eagle Pose (Garurasana)
• Standing Head to Knee (Dandayamana-Janushirasana)
• Standing Bow Pose (Dandayamana-Dhanurasana)
• Balancing Stick (Tuladandasana)
• Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose (Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimotthanasana)
• Triangle Pose (Trikanasana)
• Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose (Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Janushirasana)
• Tree Pose (Tadasana)
• Toe Stand (Padangustasana)
• Dead Body Pose (Savasana)
• Wind-Removing Pose (Pavanamuktasana)
• Sit up (Pada-Hasthasana)
• Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
• Locust Pose (Salabhasana)
• Full Locust Pose (Poorna-Salabhasana)
• Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)
• Fixed Firm Pose (Supta-Vajrasana)
• Half Tortoise Pose (Ardha-Kurmasana)
• Camel Pose (Ustrasana)
• Rabbit Pose (Sasangasana)
• Head to Knee Pose and Stretching Pose (Janushirasana and Paschimotthanasana)
• Spine-Twisting Pose (Ardha-Matsyendrasana)
• Blowing in Firm Pose (Kapalbhati in Vajrasana)
• Thigh gap (standing straight up, assessed by someone else – ha)
• Michelle Obama arms
• Bubble butt
• 32” waist
• Complete a silent retreat

Since I'm already undeniably middle aged, I've marked off the few dream elements I've completed - it's not much, but ... time's a wastin.' I don't like the effect of crossing out a dream, so the completed ones are bolded. :)