Week 1 Summary of 51 Things

I can’t believe that 1 week is done of my 52 weeks. Time passed so quickly and mostly I’m an unconscious rider going from one task to the next. Hopefully pursuing my 51 things will help me to really pay attention to life as it slips from  . . .

One second to the next second . . . One minute to the next minute . . .

One hour to the next hour . . . One day to the next day . . .

One week to the next week . . . One month to the next month until finally my 50^th year has passed.

The changes I hope to make this year, the items I hope to accomplish, see and do, will occur in the minutest of time blocks. As I pay attention to those seconds and minutes, I will have LIVED a most wonderful year. And if I miss a chance to do one of my 51 things? I can always start fresh with the coming minute.

Isn’t the following quote applicable? “We are apt to measure a year by what we get out of it. We should, rather, measure it by what we put into it.”

So, what did I learn from Week 1?

·         I need a thought-out, workable plan in order to do those weekly/monthly tasks on my 51 Things list. I put all the information in an Excel spreadsheet, but so far it isn’t in a useable format. I’ll talk to my bil or dd for some advice.

·         It would have been easier to choose 51 one-time items/events. Some of my things are new habits to incorporate or traits to nurture. These are harder to track than those one-time things like ”Go hot air ballooning” or “Clean out trunk of car.”

·         I had this temptation to do ALL I could in order to tick off the items on the list as quickly as possible. I had this fear that by the end of the year, my record will show that I’ve “failed” to do much of anything.  I kept reminding myself that this is more than a to-do list. I am trying to live life more consciously, godly, courageously, others-oriented, and adventurously. If I don’t accomplish all in 365 days that’s okay. But if I do accomplish it all without conscious thought, godliness, courage and a sense of servanthood and adventure, then I’ll have LOST my intent and failed.

What I accomplished and my thoughts about it.

Educational

·         I read one book for fun. It is The 21 Balloons by William Pene Dubois. This Newbury award book is about Professor William Waterman Sherman’s first attempt to get away for a whole year traveling high above the world in a hot air balloon! He ends up on the island of Krakatoa and is introduced to an extraordinary government, architecture, inventions, and people. 

Surprisingly it was hard to choose my “for fun” book. I have some non-school books to read. One is a tile my niece shared with me (Pendradon). Another is a controversial book in Christiandom that I want to check out (The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.) I didn’t pick one of these books because they aren’t just for fun.

I thought this title, The 21 Balloons, was ideal since hot air ballooning is an item on my 50^th year to-do list. Although, I do hope that if I go ballooning (or cruising), that my adventure is much more tame and safe. 

·         As I already indicated, with the introduction of my 51 Things articles, I wrote an article series for my blog. I do hope to write at least one more series, this one on procrastination. As I do research and experiment on myself, I’ve been taking notes. When I’m all done, I’ll publish my ideas – I hope.  🙂

Others

• I wrote 1 letter. I hope to make letter writing a part of my Sabbath Sunday ritual. I created a Letter Writing meme and invited you all to share about yourselves and then write an appreciation letter. I wrote mine to Peggy, a dear friend who loved me and my family when we lived in CO.  I also wrote some thank you notes to people here in CA to let them know how much they’ve influenced me.
• I did two Random Acts of Kindness (RAKs). I prepared a dinner meal for a family who came back from a business trip. And I also cleaned out a friend’s refrigerator. Normally my RAKs will be anonymous, and I won’t do 2 in one week (I don’t think), but these count as acts, are random and kind. So there you go! 

It was fun to be on the lookout for such things to do. This is definitely a mindset I want to cultivate.

• I took a walk with Chip 4 times this week. Intsead of my, “Hurry up, let’s go” pace, I let Chip lead the way. Hard for me, hopefully enjoyable for Chip.
• On one of our walks, I picked up trash around the church. “Companies coming”  today (Easter) and I wanted it to look nice. I was reminded at how little time that actually took.

That’s it for Week 1. Any comments, suggestions, ideas? How about stories of your own week’s successes?