Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
John Piper Challenge
I was challenged today by the blog entries of my coworker, Dave Clark. He led me to this lengthy (but inspired) clip of John Piper.
Friday, May 29, 2009
The Need to be Inspired
Recently I'd lamented to a friend about how uninspired I'd been feeling. I made comments about needing to be refueled. Two days later I'd note how I'd achieved that fueling, only to, the very next day, complain about needing inspiration again. Need inspiration. Have inspiration. Need inspiration. This is/was an almost daily cycle. He finally turned to me and said, "Do you really need to be inspired every day?"
I don't know the exact intent of the question, but I was stooped for the answer and have been stooped for an answer ever since. It's actually an excellent question, I think. And, I've my mulling over my answer. My inability to come up with an answer has been bothersome.
Last night, I decided to bring the question up to a couple girl friends, who are also in the non-profit development (fundraising) or wealth-management fields. Do they always feel the need to be inspired? Or, perhaps better stated, what is the role of inspiration in their work and personal life? Although working in non-profit sector currently, we all have had past for-profit experience. The combination of experience within the two sectors was what I was looking for. I had a hunch that my work in non-profit development actually made the answer to that original question a "yes, I do".
If the answer was yes, then why? I was afraid my/our answer was because of some self-centered, entitled position, as if I am a glutton for emotional pick-me-ups and feel-good stories. While it is true that sometimes I just need to buck up and get my work done, regardless of whether or not I am feeling "inspired" is there warrant for this need?
Their responses to the question resonated with me.
Development work is inherently highly (highly!) relational. The work is about learning people's story, meeting them where they are at, finding out about another's passions and what energizes people. Then, energizing those people around a cause, around a need, around an injustice. Development workers, typically, love meeting new people, love deep conversation, love conversations that matters, love writing, love speaking, love simply communicating. They know that, in order for their message to have wide appeal, it can't be said the same way all the time. The message has to be tailored to their audience, whether that be one person, two people, or 100. Development workers are always needing to think outside the box. (Admittedly, this is probably also true for those in marketing and sales positions) It's creative work. The skill and personality of creativity and resourcefulness are inherent traits of the job. And this creativity and resourcefulness needs to constantly be fueled.
Our friend, sitting around the table, who works in banking incidentally couldn't relate in the same way. It's not an expectation of her employer on her and it's not an expectation of she has of the bank to be consistently inspired. She does seek out inspiration with the zeal that the rest of us at the table do. When she is inspired it's nice, it's refreshing... it's not a must.
So, I ask you, what is the role of inspiration in your life? Is it something you seek after or, do you find it uncomfortable?
Certainly there are ways that we each are creative and choose to express that creativity. Such is fundamental to our expression of the "imago Dei" stored within us from the creation. This is not the question at hand, though. My question speaks to be energy one uses to rub shoulders with other people's creativity and how that intersects with your vocation.
I don't know the exact intent of the question, but I was stooped for the answer and have been stooped for an answer ever since. It's actually an excellent question, I think. And, I've my mulling over my answer. My inability to come up with an answer has been bothersome.
Last night, I decided to bring the question up to a couple girl friends, who are also in the non-profit development (fundraising) or wealth-management fields. Do they always feel the need to be inspired? Or, perhaps better stated, what is the role of inspiration in their work and personal life? Although working in non-profit sector currently, we all have had past for-profit experience. The combination of experience within the two sectors was what I was looking for. I had a hunch that my work in non-profit development actually made the answer to that original question a "yes, I do".
If the answer was yes, then why? I was afraid my/our answer was because of some self-centered, entitled position, as if I am a glutton for emotional pick-me-ups and feel-good stories. While it is true that sometimes I just need to buck up and get my work done, regardless of whether or not I am feeling "inspired" is there warrant for this need?
Their responses to the question resonated with me.
Development work is inherently highly (highly!) relational. The work is about learning people's story, meeting them where they are at, finding out about another's passions and what energizes people. Then, energizing those people around a cause, around a need, around an injustice. Development workers, typically, love meeting new people, love deep conversation, love conversations that matters, love writing, love speaking, love simply communicating. They know that, in order for their message to have wide appeal, it can't be said the same way all the time. The message has to be tailored to their audience, whether that be one person, two people, or 100. Development workers are always needing to think outside the box. (Admittedly, this is probably also true for those in marketing and sales positions) It's creative work. The skill and personality of creativity and resourcefulness are inherent traits of the job. And this creativity and resourcefulness needs to constantly be fueled.
Our friend, sitting around the table, who works in banking incidentally couldn't relate in the same way. It's not an expectation of her employer on her and it's not an expectation of she has of the bank to be consistently inspired. She does seek out inspiration with the zeal that the rest of us at the table do. When she is inspired it's nice, it's refreshing... it's not a must.
So, I ask you, what is the role of inspiration in your life? Is it something you seek after or, do you find it uncomfortable?
Certainly there are ways that we each are creative and choose to express that creativity. Such is fundamental to our expression of the "imago Dei" stored within us from the creation. This is not the question at hand, though. My question speaks to be energy one uses to rub shoulders with other people's creativity and how that intersects with your vocation.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Lifeline Living
As a fellow blogger said in posting this video, "What is the first thought that comes to your mind after watching this video?"
Mine...perfect Love casts out fear.
Mine...perfect Love casts out fear.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
What Messes You Up?
The e-zine "Wrecked for the Ordinary" turned me on to this video from Bill Hybels:
and it reminds me a phrase that often gets thrown around the office. Whenever an office mate says, "Man, it messed me up!" my ears perk. There are two rules for using this phrase in the office. 1.) Use it with care and caution; flippancy in using the phrase is like the boy crying wolf. And, 2.)to be "messed up" is a positive thing. It's cue to go out and buy this or that book, or watch this or that movie. It's a promise that the book or movie or what have you is so impactful, so disturbing, resonating to the core.
The positivity of being "messed up" stems from the assertion that, as the e-zine blogger put it, "we, as Christians, are called to step into circumstances that wreck us. As Hybels points out in the video, going into these places is what our hearts desperately yearn to do. In other words, we want to be wrecked, because we somehow innately know that the healing of creation is, at least in part, hinged on how broken we are for it."
Could it be that God desires to use our discontent to bring about redemptive change, to bring above His kingdom on earth?
Hybels' latest book "Holy Discontent" has also been on the lips of a few people in the office. This latest endorsement has pushed me over the edge; I now think I'll have to go out and buy the book.
and it reminds me a phrase that often gets thrown around the office. Whenever an office mate says, "Man, it messed me up!" my ears perk. There are two rules for using this phrase in the office. 1.) Use it with care and caution; flippancy in using the phrase is like the boy crying wolf. And, 2.)to be "messed up" is a positive thing. It's cue to go out and buy this or that book, or watch this or that movie. It's a promise that the book or movie or what have you is so impactful, so disturbing, resonating to the core.
The positivity of being "messed up" stems from the assertion that, as the e-zine blogger put it, "we, as Christians, are called to step into circumstances that wreck us. As Hybels points out in the video, going into these places is what our hearts desperately yearn to do. In other words, we want to be wrecked, because we somehow innately know that the healing of creation is, at least in part, hinged on how broken we are for it."
Could it be that God desires to use our discontent to bring about redemptive change, to bring above His kingdom on earth?
Hybels' latest book "Holy Discontent" has also been on the lips of a few people in the office. This latest endorsement has pushed me over the edge; I now think I'll have to go out and buy the book.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Relative Excusability
“Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable." - G.K. Chesterton
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
My Second Blog
I wish I posted to this Thoughts Transposed blog more often, but perhaps you didn't know that I actually write two blogs. Yes! As part of my role as Communications Coordinator, I update a blog of the developments of collaborative work in the south side neighborhood of Chicago called Woodlawn. I spend the majority of my blogging time updating my second blog. Check it out! Click HERE. and become a follower today!
Islamic Creationist Stirs Up Controversy
This morning's Wall Street Journal cover story, "An Islamic Creationist Stirs a New Kind of Darwinian Struggle" caught my attention. The subsequent article was a provocative one.
This piece tells the story of Adnam Oktar.
As scientists around the world celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's seminal work on evolution, Adnan Oktar, a college dropout turned theorist of Islamic creationism, is working on the fifth volume of a 14-part masterwork that he says will bury Darwinism once and for all...
"Darwin and his theory are dead," says Mr. Oktar, founder and honorary president of the Science Research Foundation, an Istanbul outfit dedicated to debunking the Victorian-era English naturalist. Darwin, says his 52-year-old Turkish scourge, is "Satan's biggest trick on humanity."
I suppose it's not a big surprise that Oktar's work and influence has pushed the buttons of the outspoken atheist & Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins, who has worked with child-like fervor to ban websites that publish the work of Oktar, etc., etc. etc. The truth about their interpersonal dynamics is one in which you have to read between the lines.
I'm used to the Christian Creationist - Atheist Darwinist battle that is covered by the media each time a bigwig from either camp comes out with a new book or late night TV spew. For me, (and now I point to my own ignorance) my fascination with the dialogue was slightly renewed by the article. A light bulb went on as I realized the magnitude of this interfaith conversation - a conversation that is no less heated when you bring in other faith traditions.
While I am not, necessarily, a six-day creationist, I will admit (for better or for worse) to some strange satisfaction in knowing there are those of other faiths ganging up Darwinians like Dawkins, chiding the other camp to present more proof that this world isn't millions of years old and that divine, creative design was the generator of it all. I could let the whole how-the-world-began discussion go if it wasn't for all the other inherent convictions that spill forth from this one conversation.
What is your reaction to the article?
This piece tells the story of Adnam Oktar.
As scientists around the world celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's seminal work on evolution, Adnan Oktar, a college dropout turned theorist of Islamic creationism, is working on the fifth volume of a 14-part masterwork that he says will bury Darwinism once and for all...
"Darwin and his theory are dead," says Mr. Oktar, founder and honorary president of the Science Research Foundation, an Istanbul outfit dedicated to debunking the Victorian-era English naturalist. Darwin, says his 52-year-old Turkish scourge, is "Satan's biggest trick on humanity."
I suppose it's not a big surprise that Oktar's work and influence has pushed the buttons of the outspoken atheist & Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins, who has worked with child-like fervor to ban websites that publish the work of Oktar, etc., etc. etc. The truth about their interpersonal dynamics is one in which you have to read between the lines.
I'm used to the Christian Creationist - Atheist Darwinist battle that is covered by the media each time a bigwig from either camp comes out with a new book or late night TV spew. For me, (and now I point to my own ignorance) my fascination with the dialogue was slightly renewed by the article. A light bulb went on as I realized the magnitude of this interfaith conversation - a conversation that is no less heated when you bring in other faith traditions.
While I am not, necessarily, a six-day creationist, I will admit (for better or for worse) to some strange satisfaction in knowing there are those of other faiths ganging up Darwinians like Dawkins, chiding the other camp to present more proof that this world isn't millions of years old and that divine, creative design was the generator of it all. I could let the whole how-the-world-began discussion go if it wasn't for all the other inherent convictions that spill forth from this one conversation.
What is your reaction to the article?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Back on the Scene.
One of my favorite soul-filled voices is arriving back on the scene. Lizz Wright, my friends, has a new number out. (See video clip)
Lizz Wright on iLike - Get updates inside iTunes
Monday, February 16, 2009
Both Ends of the Atrocity
While laid up sick on the couch this weekend, I had a chance to catch up on my DVD queue. Two movies were in line for me to watch and the irony of these films hasn't eluded me. The first was "As We Forgive", recommended to me by my executive director.
When I go to conferences, read books, blogs, magazine articles about reconciliation I wait for someone to dose out the real deal. All to often, I have been disappointed by the diplomacy that has often won out in the conversation. By contrast, this film is not for those that were enjoying diplomatic answers to their questions on reconciliation. The film strips the cliche from these words - "reconciliation" and "forgiveness" - and returns with a definition that's raw, straight, tough. Humanly speaking, there is no such thing as reconciliation nor forgiveness. As one blogger pointed out, it's only a living God that could touch hearts turned to stone by pain and give that heart the capacity to forgive. It's a supernatural phenomenon that can only be explained as such.
Secondly, I watched "Before the Rain"...
This was the first Macedonian film to ever be nominated for an Oscar. The film explores that start of violence in the Balkans with a fictional story that could, by all intents and purposes, be true. The story takes place amidst the political turbulence of the Balkans alongside contemporary peace in London, with three love stories that intertwine to create a powerful portrait of modern Europe. When a mysterious incident in the fabled Macedonian mountains blows out of proportion, it threatens to start a civil war, and brings together a silent young monk, a London picture editor, and a disillusioned war photographer. Told in three parts, and linked by characters and events, the film explores the seemingly uncompromising nature of war as it ravages the lives of the unsuspecting, and forces the innocent to take sides.
Perpetrators of civil war can be so convincing of the compulsorily cyclical nature of the battle. Manchevski, however, fights this notion with his own premise the circle is not round. A Macedonian reviewer made this observation about the film: "In every end [of each of the three stories] there is a change. A change which always makes the new beginning worse. In a way it is like a spiral. And Manchevski is smartly telling three stories. They are not [quite] linear...With the last episode he connects the three stories, and you can feel the message - his message [that war doesn't have to be cyclical]" Violence is like spirals and at the end of each, the persons involved have a choice in perpetrating violence or to believe in the possibility of the supernatural, making space for its intervention.
These two films are poignant showcases the potential before and after ethnic genocide.
When I go to conferences, read books, blogs, magazine articles about reconciliation I wait for someone to dose out the real deal. All to often, I have been disappointed by the diplomacy that has often won out in the conversation. By contrast, this film is not for those that were enjoying diplomatic answers to their questions on reconciliation. The film strips the cliche from these words - "reconciliation" and "forgiveness" - and returns with a definition that's raw, straight, tough. Humanly speaking, there is no such thing as reconciliation nor forgiveness. As one blogger pointed out, it's only a living God that could touch hearts turned to stone by pain and give that heart the capacity to forgive. It's a supernatural phenomenon that can only be explained as such.
Secondly, I watched "Before the Rain"...
This was the first Macedonian film to ever be nominated for an Oscar. The film explores that start of violence in the Balkans with a fictional story that could, by all intents and purposes, be true. The story takes place amidst the political turbulence of the Balkans alongside contemporary peace in London, with three love stories that intertwine to create a powerful portrait of modern Europe. When a mysterious incident in the fabled Macedonian mountains blows out of proportion, it threatens to start a civil war, and brings together a silent young monk, a London picture editor, and a disillusioned war photographer. Told in three parts, and linked by characters and events, the film explores the seemingly uncompromising nature of war as it ravages the lives of the unsuspecting, and forces the innocent to take sides.
Perpetrators of civil war can be so convincing of the compulsorily cyclical nature of the battle. Manchevski, however, fights this notion with his own premise the circle is not round. A Macedonian reviewer made this observation about the film: "In every end [of each of the three stories] there is a change. A change which always makes the new beginning worse. In a way it is like a spiral. And Manchevski is smartly telling three stories. They are not [quite] linear...With the last episode he connects the three stories, and you can feel the message - his message [that war doesn't have to be cyclical]" Violence is like spirals and at the end of each, the persons involved have a choice in perpetrating violence or to believe in the possibility of the supernatural, making space for its intervention.
These two films are poignant showcases the potential before and after ethnic genocide.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
1,000 Questions
Each year that-big-church-down-the-road as my once-pastor called it, executes one of (if not THE) largest conference of evangelical believers across the globe in 85 locations. It's called the Leadership Summit, it's main site hosted by Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, IL, but satellited to 85 locations across the nation and globe. It's a HUGE operation (trust me, I used to work for their conference operations team) and generates some of the most creative thinking as it relates to the arts and...well, anything.
This video below was first played at this past year's Summit and has since generated quite a bit of (mostly positive) commotion. We, at Sunshine, have watched it many times, integrating it now into our Bridge Builders curriculm. I think it jerks more tears each time I view it. Here it is:
The frankness and transparency of this piece is refreshing and encouraging. Sometimes (well, most of the time) following Christ means grappling with more questions than answers. I'm thankful that I serve a God who can handle my questions and who meets me right where I'm at.
This video below was first played at this past year's Summit and has since generated quite a bit of (mostly positive) commotion. We, at Sunshine, have watched it many times, integrating it now into our Bridge Builders curriculm. I think it jerks more tears each time I view it. Here it is:
The frankness and transparency of this piece is refreshing and encouraging. Sometimes (well, most of the time) following Christ means grappling with more questions than answers. I'm thankful that I serve a God who can handle my questions and who meets me right where I'm at.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
By A Photo Techie
I'm surrounded by those with a great "eye" for photography. I've been told I have that I eye, too, (the banner of this blog, in fact, was taken by me) but it's not a skill I've honed. This photographer, however, has and he's sharing his work on Inauguration Day with us on the www.
Photographer David Bergman took this 1,474-megapixel shot of the nearly two-million strong crowd in front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.as Barack Obama delivered his inaugural address. See for yourself, click here.
Photographer David Bergman took this 1,474-megapixel shot of the nearly two-million strong crowd in front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.as Barack Obama delivered his inaugural address. See for yourself, click here.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Duality of a Major Scale
Bono recently began a writing gig as Op-Eds for the New York Times. I don't if it's because I have a thing for accents or because he's a rough-around-the-edges-rocker with a heart for the oppressed, but I like Bono in a I-want-to-be-his-niece kind of way. So, when he speaks I listen.
Cathleen Falsani who writes and writes the blog The Dude Abides turned me on to Bono's NYT ode to the New Year, where he discusses the duality of music in its interpretations. Put simply, how a song can take on a different meaning depending on the time and place. And, this is also the case for the song's singer.
Having done a duet with Frank Sinatra, Bono explores this concept using Sinatra's song "My Way" - the very song that played at the Irish pub he was recently at which united all in the room when it came over the speakers.
You can read Bono's op-ed HERE. And you can listen to him read it there as well, which I, of course, think is even better!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Our Addiction to Anxiety
I've recently become a follower of an online magazine called "Wrecked for the Ordinary" - a magazine written by Jesus followers who are re-imaging culture with Christ in mind. I encourage you to check it out.
In a recent article, writer C.Holland talks about her 2008 awareness of her addiction to anxiety and her 2009 "resolution" to work on "taking every thought captive" as Scripture states, and instead to heed Philippians 4:6. Ironically, I couldn't have penned a better article myself. My experience, almost down to the very "t" and very "i", has been the same, except that my adrenal system did shut down many years ago and it's been a road of recovery ever since. Yes, these things do happen!
I share this with you, because I know I'm not alone and neither is C. Holland. In fact, I think any Western or Eastern medical professional will attest to the spread of a rampant disease of anxiety addiction. Anxiety is not a newfound discovery, but as new medias emerge and we become evermore connected with each other (cell phones, emails, facebook, blogs, Twitters, LinkedIns, RSS Feeds, texting...) the anxiety, and potentials for anxiety, only grows.
I encourage you to read C. Holland's article. If it describes you... know you're not alone in the battle to slow down and trust God.
In a recent article, writer C.Holland talks about her 2008 awareness of her addiction to anxiety and her 2009 "resolution" to work on "taking every thought captive" as Scripture states, and instead to heed Philippians 4:6. Ironically, I couldn't have penned a better article myself. My experience, almost down to the very "t" and very "i", has been the same, except that my adrenal system did shut down many years ago and it's been a road of recovery ever since. Yes, these things do happen!
I share this with you, because I know I'm not alone and neither is C. Holland. In fact, I think any Western or Eastern medical professional will attest to the spread of a rampant disease of anxiety addiction. Anxiety is not a newfound discovery, but as new medias emerge and we become evermore connected with each other (cell phones, emails, facebook, blogs, Twitters, LinkedIns, RSS Feeds, texting...) the anxiety, and potentials for anxiety, only grows.
I encourage you to read C. Holland's article. If it describes you... know you're not alone in the battle to slow down and trust God.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
99 Random Things to Ponder in 09
I think this might be the first year I attempt (with some amount of great seriousness) a New Years resolution. It might include some kind of L.A. Fitness, but since it's such a cliche resolution I won't elaborate. Instead, my friend over at the Green Room also borrowed this list of 99 things to ponder. Play along: bold what you've done in your comment, or on your blog (but don't forget to link back to Thoughts Transposed so I can check out your list!).
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars (leave it to childhood camps across the midwest).
3. Played in a band (no, but does 8 years of choir count. I think it should.)
4. Visited Hawaii and danced on a lava cliff with the roar of the Pacific below.
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (what is more than you can afford, really?)
7. Been to Disneyland/Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain (I may get to check this off with technicalities)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (the story of my life)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (preferred to ferry by it.)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (maybe. I can't remember. Feel like that would be a Dillon thing to do though.)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you weren't ill (once!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (ssshhhh!)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud (mudslide in a bathing suit)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (does a commercial count?)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving - May 2010!!!
66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (never will)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year's Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous - Jason Mraz
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
Play along!
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars (leave it to childhood camps across the midwest).
3. Played in a band (no, but does 8 years of choir count. I think it should.)
4. Visited Hawaii and danced on a lava cliff with the roar of the Pacific below.
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (what is more than you can afford, really?)
7. Been to Disneyland/Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain (I may get to check this off with technicalities)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (the story of my life)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (preferred to ferry by it.)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (maybe. I can't remember. Feel like that would be a Dillon thing to do though.)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you weren't ill (once!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (ssshhhh!)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud (mudslide in a bathing suit)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (does a commercial count?)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving - May 2010!!!
66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (never will)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year's Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous - Jason Mraz
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
Play along!
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