I dream of all these things now, yes, and every year my list swells and grows with additional dreams.
Would I like to achieve them? Oh yes! I name them "dreams" because I do, literally, daydream of doing many of them. I lie in bed and dream - planning in tiny detail in some cases how a garden-bed would be edged and planted ... in other cases my planning takes the broad brushstrokes on a big canvas of a hiking trip across all of Europe, for example. Oh yes, I would like to do these things, indeed.
But I doubt ... seriously doubt ... that many of them will ever be achieved. The original John Goddard who created his "Life List" had achieved nearly all of his ambitious dreams. I have achieved some of mine, yes, but each year progress slows until now it has been years since any achievements were marked "Done" and crossed off the list of things to do.
If you have read these pages you will known of the full extent of the illnesses that hold be back from my goals. It makes me cry real tears that I can't do these things, and that I can't do even the simplest things like feeding myself breakfast, washing my face, or going (even in my wheelchair) to collect the mail.
I dream most of getting better, nowdays. Just well enough to wash my face ... to feed myself ... to collect the mail ... and then on to the bigger things on this list.
But don't worry. Nothing will ever make me stop dreaming.
