via Exultet and Summamamas.
I'm afraid my ambitions are rather boring, but they are my ambitions and I can't very well deny them.
(1) See Samuel happily married with family and children all around, or, see Samuel as the first all tap-dancing, all piano playing, scientific Pope detective--his choice.
(2) See John Paul the Great canonized.
(3) Finally, really and truly, make the Ascent of Mount Carmel and realize my place in the body of Christ
(4) Spend a month, two month, a year in Great Britain doing a "literary tour"
(5) Visit Australia
(6) Be able to read medieval Latin fairly fluently
(7) Write a publishable and published book of poetry
(8) Read (and understand) a majority of the Summa Theologiae
(9) See a human being set foot on Mars OR a permanent, more populated space station or lunar colony.
(10) Return to the world the enormous love I have received from so many in a form that will endure and bring people to the source of Love. (Vague, I know, but this is off the top of my head.)
I suppose strictly speaking that 1, 2, and 9 are not really so much things to "do" as to experience. Nevertheless, they are so important, they deserve a place on the list. And please forgive the seeming immodesty of #3--however, as far as I am concerned it is the one that casts all the rest into shadow. My God and my all--to be able to say that and mean it is the best possible goal.
In the words of Charlie Brown to Linus, "well, I was going to say that I saw a chickie and a duckie, but never mind!"
If you catch the reference, you'll understand why I am bemused. *I* want to work a cotton candy machine!
Thanks. Yours will give grace to the world. Mine will make me sticky....
Dear ThereseZ
I was half afraid this might evoke that response. On the other hand, several people asked, and I am not reluctant to answer. The top three are the fondest wishes of my heart. I simply fail to do much of anything to make the wish a reality. This is disturbing.
I suspect most Saint Bloggers feel similarly, they simply think of more things more present, tangible and possible. Their humility is greater than my own. But I trust in that odd passage that says, "From the beginning the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent bear it away." Maybe if I can only talk myself into activity.
shalom,
Steven