LESSONS - CHAPTER II

REMEMBERING YOUR DREAMS

A few years ago, I received several e-mails from a man in Washington DC named Richie. Actually his name was Richard and he appeared, at first, to be a staunch government type so I decided to call him Richie to help break the mold on his well worn identity.

Richie and I had many wonderful e-mail conversations, but my favorite was when he sent me his "THINGS TO DO LIST."

I told him that I would keep his list and someday make a lesson out of it at vicky.com and here I am, 4 years later, finally doing it.

When I first looked at Richie’s list, I thought is was way too longggggg. How could anyone think of that many things? Then I realized I had forgotten most of my dreams, and eventually quit having them altogether, so I started writing. The more I wrote, the more there were. The more there were, the more inspired and playful I became and the more I remembered and created.

It seems that as we get older, we forget the dreams that we once had or become "reasonable" and deny that we ever had any in the first place.

  • Have you done that?
  • What were you dreams?
  • If you could have your life the way you REALLY want it, how would it be?
  • What does the person you want to be want?

    Grab some paper, think big and number the paper from 1-200. Let Richie’s list inspire you to remember and decide on new dreams so you can start living them! You can’t create it if you don’t decide you want it!

    If Richie’s list isn’t enough to inspire you, it may help to list your greatest pleasures, for things you want to do, and your greatest heroes, for ways that you want to be, at particular ages in your life. For example, what were your greatest pleasures from ages 1-6, 7-12, 13-18, 19-25, 26-34, 35-45, 46-54, etc., and who were your greatest heroes at those ages?

    I reprint Richie’s "THINGS TO DO LIST" now in all it’s splendor. God bless you Richie, wherever you are. Thanks for the lesson and the inspiration! I hope you are living and loving your dreams!

    Vicky

    "THINGS TO DO LIST"

    by: "Richie"

    1. Howl at the moon at midnight around a campfire in the middle of the desert.
    2. Learn more Japanese.
    3. Write a koob for dyslexics.
    4. Walk up the belltower of the University City Municipal Building.
    5. Perform at Bob Putnam's open mike night at the Venice Cafe, and to his dismay, read from the Bible.
    6. Learn more Russian.
    7. Go bowling wearing dark sunglasses, holding a white cane, acting blind, having someone aim me, and scoring 185. (completed 3-31-93, score was 109).
    8. Master's Degree in Information Management.
    9. Learn more Esperanto.
    10. Visit a Black Evangelical Church.
    11. Ph.D. in Whole Systems Design/Theory.
    12. Develop the ability to wiggle my right ear as much as my left.
    13. Visit Fiji.
    14. Go Land Yachting on the Salt Flats.
    15. Go Ice Yachting in Maine.
    16. Visit New Zealand.
    17. Crash a Fourth of July picnic.
    18. Learn the proper cooking times and sequences for major dishes.
    19. Walk into a High School, convince the Principal that I'm there to give the assembly lecture, and talk about holding on to your dreams.
    20. Design and build an Armillary Sphere sculpture and donate it to an interested community.
    21. Send more surprise grab bags of stuff to my nephew.
    22. Take a defensive driving/high performance course.
    23. Visit Nepal.
    24. Serve meals to the homeless.
    25. Obtain the rights to the 1960's cartoon series "The Adventures of Clutch Cargo, with his friends Flatfoot, Spinner, and Platypus," and resell it to VH-1.
    26. Fly a 1938 Stearman Bi-plane.
    27. Jam with a "found instrument" NYC street band using a 5-gallon plastic bucket, sticks, turtle clickers, rocks, and sparklers.
    28. Climb Mt. Fuji at night and watch the sunrise.
    29. Love more.
    30. Fly on the Concorde.
    31. Visit Patagonia.
    32. Learn to do backflips in a Tux.
    33. Design an inexpensive temporary shelter for the homeless (design in progress).
    34. Plant walnut tree seedlings at random.
    35. Learn how to button my shirt with my left hand as well as I do with my right.
    36. Take fencing lessons.
    37. Become not afraid of telling people, especially my friends and family, that I love them.
    38. Listen more.
    39. Be unshy.
    40. Design and build a giant 'recorder' type musical instrument using 6" diameter by 15' long PVC pipe, attach it to the roof of my car, and travel the interstate highways.
    41. Visit Peru.
    42. "Take off" between June 1999 and August 2001.
    43. Visit the History Museum Research Lab in St. Louis.
    44. Walk more.
    45. Recite the alphabet backwards.
    46. Fly a balloon at night and land at sunrise.
    47. Visit Crete.
    48. Drive from San Francisco to Fairbanks, Alaska.
    49. Windsurf.
    50. Forgive.
    51. Listen to Les Paul jam.
    52. Read the "American Heritage Dictionary."
    53. Convince communities to engrave "hopscotch" patterns in sidewalks.
    54. Learn the Two-step.
    55. Design a more user-friendly compact-disc package/holder.
    56. Smile more, or at least grin.
    57. Visit Chile.
    58. Play.
    59. Visit the Isle of Man.
    60. Visit Antarctica.
    61 Change more baby diapers.
    62. Look into the eyes of the homeless.
    63. Snowsurf.
    64. Skip rocks on water.
    65. Write what you feel.
    66. Learn Excel for Windows 97.
    67. Observe.
    68. Learn Semaphore.
    69. Follow my intuition, more.
    70. Give my Mother a Caribbean Cruise.
    71. Appreciate the genuineness in others.
    72. Be unconditional.
    73. Ask more questions.
    74. Organize my photo collection.
    75. Visit the Library more frequently.
    76Learn how to play Cricket.
    77. Understand the spiritual laws of money.
    78. Write poetry like Rumi.
    79. Focus more.
    80. Watch the stars at night in the desert.
    81. Experience space flight.
    82. Chisel hieroglyphics in an undiscovered cave, using a combination of geometric and anthropomorphic symbols, with the McDonald's Golden Arches thrown in for confusion.
    83. Not fear death.
    84. Transmit positive energy through space and time.
    85. Give more.
    86. Live to see the spiritual renaissance.
    87. Become a good tennis player.
    88. Participate in a sacred Hopi Indian ceremony.
    89. Visit Sumatra.
    90. Have plenty of studio, workshop, and office space.
    91. Have Children and Grandchildren to play with.
    92. Delight in the sharing of friends and family, a wonderful flower, herb, and vegetable garden.
    93. Have friends that feel more at home at mine than at theirs.
    94. Live life with my soulmate.
    95. Die in the arms of my life partner, both of us smiling, knowing that we lived a full and rewarding life.
    96. Win a hog calling contest.
    97. Enter the Carbondale, Illinois Annual Cardboard Boat Race.
    98. Continue to experience the magic of the universe.
    99. Be in a business that defines the essence of right-livelihood, prospers, and contributes to improving the quality of life.
    100. Moon the Moon.
    101. Have the admiration and respect of the very young and the very old.
    102. Have an apartment in Amsterdam.
    103. Watch the Reno Air Races.
    104. Eat a good breakfast, everyday.
    105. Crush grapes barefoot in a Spanish villa.
    106. Become a great storyteller.
    107. See the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
    108. Visit the "Museum of Bible Story Dolls" in Owensboro, Kentucky.
    109. Watch a nighttime Space Shuttle Launch.
    110. Attend at least one Cardinal Baseball game per year.
    111. Run a marathon, backwards.
    112. Exchange one of each of Monet's paintings from the Chicago Museum of Modern Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, and the Louisville Fine Art Museum, without detection, within an 8 hour period.
    113. Conduct the First Annual Found Instrument Orchestra at Powell Symphony Hall.
    114. Drive in the Baja La Carrea Classica Road Race.
    115. Learn French.
    116. Enter my furniture in the International Contemporary Furniture Fair.
    117. Have Children and Grandchildren so that I could help them enter the Pinewood and Soapbox Derby's.
    118. Play more.
    119. Keep a journal/logbook.
    120. Host great weekend gatherings for friends and family.
    121. Be the silent benefactor for a fund for High School rebels to be used for any purpose.
    122. Allow my sense of humor to express itself.
    123. Be more open.
    124. Watch the sunrise and sunset from the Acropolis.
    125. Learn Celestial Navigation.
    126. Wink at strangers.
    127. Place "Shake Well Before Opening" labels on bottles of cheap champagne at Schnuck's Markets.
    128. Send "PEZ" candy dispensers to friends anonymously.
    129. Rearrange the furniture in every bed and breakfast that I stay in.
    130. Remove all the labels from my clothes.
    131. Design "harmonically pleasing" highway warning bumps, with the first one tuned to the theme song from "Mr. Ed."
    132. Take advantage of each photo opportunity (posing with outreached thumb) at highway signs that say, "Prison Area. Do Not Pickup Hitchhikers."
    133. Do "deadman" chalk outlines on sidewalks in busy shopping areas.
    134. Send cheap "Shake the snow in the globe with pink flamingos" souvenirs to friends anonymously.
    135. Give thanks to the Angels.
    136. Do a petition drive in the Central West End of St. Louis requesting that the National Safety Product Commission require warning labels on bars of soap that read: "Caution, Slippery When Wet," just to see how many people would sign it.
    137. Place cheap sunglasses in the passenger's side sun visor of convertibles that leave their top down.
    138. Send fortune cookies with personal messages to friends anonymously.
    139. During every commercial airline flight when anyone starts the crossword puzzle that is sitting near me, pull out the in-flight magazine and fill out the crossword puzzle with bogus letters in under a minute flat, promptly rip it out, and pocket it.
    140. Enter the Portland, Oregon Rose Festival Milk Carton Boat Race.
    141. Have Tantric Sex.
    142. Run the Boston Marathon at age 50.
    143. Attend the Millennium celebration at the Great Pyramids of Cheops.
    144. Learn to play Eric Satie's "Gymnophedies I, II, and II" for the piano.
    145. Once a year, wash and wax my neighbor's car while they are away.
    146. Score a 99 on the MAT.
    147. Visit the Dog Museum in St. Louis.
    148. Play with the New Music Circle Improv group in St. Louis using found instruments.
    149. Visit Tasmania.
    150. Do a cake walk.
    151. Visit the Isle of Skye.
    152. Obtain a small moon rock, grind it into powder, stir it in with a cup of coffee, and drink it.
    153. Participate in a Mauri fertility dance.
    154. Fly under the Golden Gate Bridge in a Seaplane, land in front of my friend's house in Mill Valley, and have breakfast with him.
    155. Whenever I visit a friend's home for a party, place a "Blue Bowl Tablet" in the tanks of the toilets and deny it if asked later.
    156. Visit Madagascar.
    157. Create a new word each month: April 1997: "e-faxing" v. transmitting or receiving a telefax communication using the Internet, thus bypassing the costs associated with long-distance and international telephone rates. May 1997: "pictitious" adj. A photograph that has been altered digitally and it is impossible to determine its authenticity.
    158. Ask strangers what the millennium means to them.
    159. Knock on wood. Again.
    160. Play TwisterÒ.
    161. Answer truthfully.
    162. Put messages in bottles, toss them in rivers and oceans.
    163. Remind myself each day that you only live once in this physical world.
    164. Eliminate the word "stress" from my vocabulary.
    165. Think you can. You can.
    166. Think big.
    167. Move to where I really want to live.
    168. Sit near the front.
    169. Recognize and encourage success.
    170. Invent a new dance.
    171. Be more patient, tolerant, and understanding.
    172. Try to be polite to telemarketers.
    173. Make a rain drum.
    174. Live life on Purpose.
    175. Remember how lucky I am.

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