- By Laurie Okay - so I'm a list person. I get it from my mother. She is a list person to the nth degree!!! She even writes things like "get up" on her list, just so she can cross them off. I'm not that bad. Most of the time, my list is in my head - I just don't have too much on it these days and I can keep up with it in my head. But sometimes, I get overwhelmed or too busy or too stressed and I have to write it down.
But this is a different kind of list. Many years ago, I made a list and I kept it in my Bible. It was a list of life goals and things I hoped to see or do in my lifetime. The list was fluid... it changed and morphed and some things fell off of it as I matured. Some things actually happened and I was so surprised! It isn't a list of things that I set out to make happen. It's just kind-of a list of hopes and dreams and "somedays".
When I was in language school, one of our assignments was to write a list exactly like the one I already had (so I was really happy that I didn't have to create it on the spur of the moment - but I did have to translate it and present it in my class). I found out that it is amazing how you can sit next to someone in class every day for 5 hours, plus eat with them, plus serve in missions with them, and really not KNOW them until you read their list of hopes and dreams. I found out a lot about my classmates and missionary peers that week. Because somehow it isn't just enough to read the list... you have to discuss it and justify your hopes and explain the "whys" behind your feelings.
So today, I pulled out my list and was looking to see how it has changed in the last year. Here it is... maybe there is more to me than you thought, too...
- visit the Galapagos Islands
- sail on a tall ship
- write a book
- go to high tea
- visit Africa / safari
- ride horses on the beach
- a deep desire to be in medicine / health care
- backpack in the Andes
- visit the lost civilizations
- ride in a horse-drawn carriage
- take a horse-drawn sleigh ride at night in the snow
- learn Spanish and become FLUENT
- live in the Amazon jungle
- go to the Kentucky Derby in a big hat and fancy dress
- be a published photographer
- see a horse give birth to her foal
- work for National Geographic
- eat in a cafe in the Mediterranean / France / Italy
- see the paintings of the Old Masters (Renoir, Monet, etc.)
- visit the great cathedrals of the world
So that's where it stands right now. Some things have been marked off over the years, others added. Some things seemed really silly and self-centered when I looked back at them from years past. Some things on my list today seem like impossibilities, given my current situation and all... but so did other things that I can now look at and smile and say "Thank you for allowing that one to come true, God. I never expected that!"
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