Making The Most Of My Time On Earth |

See the Synchronous Fireflies Mating Display in the Great Smoky Mountains

Do the Elkmont midnight hike without a flashlight through the millions of fireflies lighting up around me in the East Tennessee Smoky Mountains. Two weeks in June, peak varies from June 3 to June 21. ...

La Tomatina

Yes.

Jump Off A Bridge Tall Enough To Scare Me

Not just a little scary – really scary.

Spend At Least 3 Months Completely Alone In The Woods

Must spend three months without seeing another human being. Can have a pet.

Donate 50% of Annual Income to Worthy Causes

This one is technically never ‘done’. Philanthropy is all to often reserved for old age or padding out wills. Why wait? Why deny financial assistance to this generation? The single most satisfying thing I can ever do is to make a difference in people’s lives....

Shower In The Desert Rain

It does not count if I am not naked, nor if it is dark.

Learn to Ballroom Dance

Properly

Make Love

Anywhere and in any manner and with whomever I desire, without reservation, without guilt, without shame.

Go Skinny Dipping With Strangers On A Bright Sunny Day

Fuck the cover of night.

Have My Portrait Painted – Nude

It now sits in the private collection of the ex-boyfriend who took it when we broke up. Bastard. It was a beautiful painting. The image on this post is not it.

Paris, Again

Paris is a city that deserves multiple trips. I need to do the Louvre again, more macarons. Meet old friends.

Long, Languid Exploration of Kerala

Backwater houseboat, slow and easy through Kerala then Goa to crazy Mumbai. Scheduled November 2012

Visit Istanbul Bazaar

Also explore Ephesus & study Istanbul architecture

Attend Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago

Also dive Buccoo Reef

Live in Greece

For at least two years.

Visit Thailand’s National Parks

Thaleh Ban & Khao Yai

Visit the Granite Beaches of Seychelles

Also snorkelling, diving and Aldabra.

Dive Saint Lucia

Also visit Pigeon Island.

Hike the Awesome Cirque de Marfate, Reunion

Also hike active volcano Piton de la Fournaise.

Learn Greek

Done when fluent. Started September 2011 – I took a break after a few months then started up again in May 2012. On the way to completion.

Visit Machu Picchu, Peru

Arive as the sun rises, hot springs at Aguas Calientes after the hike.

Attend Sing Sing Festival in Papua New Guinea

Also snorkelling, travelling up Sepik River

Sailing Through Palau’s Rock Islands

Also climbing Malakai Hill

Dive Pulau Weh

Deep ocean trenches bring nutrient rich waters which support a diverse marine habitat with big fish.

Trek New Zealand

Go everywhere interesting.

Visit Buddhist Temples in Nepal

Also white water rafting in Bhote Kosi

Visit Temples of Bagan in Myanmar

Also, drifting on Inle Lake.

Stay with Berber family in Merzouga

Also hiking in the Atlas mountains, bazaar in Marrakesh.

Hopping the Marshall Islands

Diving, swimming – another beautiful remote location.

Soneva Gili in the Maldives

Also diving with the reef sharks.

Spotting Lemurs in Madagascar

King Julian. Tsingy bread-knife forest.

See Park Guell in Barcelona

Also explore the art museums & architecture.

Kaiseki-ryori in Japan

Tea ceremony, cherry blossom front, chaos in Shinjuku

Give Birth Without Drugs

Well maybe aspirin, but no epidural, nothing prescription.

Watch the Sea Claim Venice During Aqua Alta

Also gondola, getting lost in the back streets, finding the cathedrals, learning about the Bacchanalian culture which preceded Venice’s demise, coffee and hot chocolate at Caffè Florian.

Visit all 50 Sates of the United States

My one OCD collection. One day business trips count.

Swim through the Sawa-i-Lau caves in Fiji

Plus diving and drinking yaqona.

Drift the Nile in a Felucca

What better way to see Egypt then to float down the river that gives it life.

Visit Cook Islands

So remote, so beautiful. Hike Rarotonga mountains, swimming, diving.

Be Infatuated with Someone I Can’t Have

The one that got away – it would be a shame not to experience the sweet frustration.

Fall Deeply Madly in Love with Someone

Nothing less than total surrender.

Visit China – Travel The Silk Road

Travel the Silk Road from Xi’an crossing the Yellow River at Lazhou through the Taklamakan desert stopping in Hetian & Kashgar, Great Wall, Forbidden City, Hong Kong Stanley Harbour Dragon Boat Races

Mt. St. Helens Helicopter Ride with Volcanologist

There is not much point is seeing Mt. Saint Helen’s without a volcanologist to point out some of the fine details.

Stay in an Intuit igloo in Northern Quebec

It’s an igloo. People sleep in them. Seems like something I should experience before I die.

Visit Anguilla

Lazing on Shoal Bay, picnic on Prickly Pear Cays, Dive the shipwrecks.

"If an activity is not grounded in 'to love' or 'to learn,' it does not have value."

There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world - its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles.

About

This is my ultimate to do list; things I want to get done before I die. Giving my desires their own home here seems right somehow.

101?

There are, not surprisingly for those of you who know me, more than 101 items on this list. I started this list years ago and have not yet recorded all of my completed items here. I might not ever get them on, too busy doing the things which remain.