100 Things . . .

When I was in the fifth grade, the school district began planning a pilot program in which a group of selected students would take some advanced classes and study a foreign language. These students would stay together as a home room throughout their junior high years. I was selected to be in that program. So, one day, my fifth grade teacher, Miss Hermes, called me to her desk and said, "If you could pick any language at all to study, what would it be?" I didn't know. She took another approach: "What country would you like to visit?" That I knew. I told her I wanted to go to Holland. So she wrote down "Dutch" as my language preference. It turned out that the two languages offered in the pilot program were French and Spanish (imagine that, no Dutch!), and I opted for the Spanish program. All of that, to say this . . . I always wanted to visit Holland, and still do! Haven't done it yet (except via Google Earth).

Maybe I should have formalized the things I wanted to do in my life by writing them down. I keep seeing lists on the Internet, entitled, "One Hundred Things I Want to Do Before I Die." I was reading one person's list yesterday and thought to myself that they really weren't very high aspirations - unless you call going to the top of the Empire State Building a "high" aspiration, because that was one of his 100.

I figure my life is about 2/3 completed. So, hopefully, 2/3 of my goals have already been achieved. I remember a few of those early goals:

I wanted to be a teacher. I achieved this one, but didn't stay in that profession as long as I thought I would.

I wanted to get married. Uh-huh. Did that once, and stayed with it.

I wanted to have twelve children. I didn't have twelve, but I had two, and those two were such a blessing (or a handful) that I felt completely fulfilled without ten more.

But, some goals I haven't yet realized. For instance, I wanted to be a missionary, and haven't made good on it yet. But, I still have that final 1/3 of my life to go, the Lord willing, so there's still hope.

As I was perusing these "Before I Die" lists on the Internet, yesterday, I got tickled. Here are a few of the things I found people putting on their "One Hundred Things to do Before I Die" lists:

1. Finish my mending
2. Make a Waldo dress and have someone find me in a huge crowd
3. Pet a seal
4. Learn to walk in higher heels
5. Kiss in the rain (awwww, that's a sweet one)
6. Stretch my lobes to 2" (ugh - and that was the same person who wanted to kiss in the rain!)
7. Eat jellied eels from a stall in London
8. Converse with a parrot
9. Light a match with a .22 rifle
10.See Area 51

Feel free to leave a comment, if you wish, with one or more of your "Things to Do Before I Die." And make it a frivolous thing. After all, I already know that all of you want world peace, to feed the hungry, and to see your children and grandchildren leading upright and faithful lives. So let's go for the "bling" here!