weekly writing assignment

It's time for MamaKat's writing prompt! If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon, well, you should. It's fun and all the cool kids are doing it.

Anyway, this week I chose prompt #5: If you could choose only three things in life and focus on them fully what would they be?

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The other night, J and I were watching a DVR'd episode of Miami Ink. In it, a guy got a tattoo of the words "Risk Everything" across his shoulders. J turned to me and said: "If it were me, I'd get a tattoo that read 'Risk Nothing'."

We laughed, of course, even though she was only half kidding. J is the kind of person who has to be organized and in control at all times. She is, without a doubt, the most organized person I know. She goes shopping each week and buys the exact same articles of food. The cabinets are arranged in perfectly straight rows of cans and boxes and Tupperware containers. There are Monday meals and Tuesday meals and every other day of the week meals. I wish I could be as organized as she is. But not really.

See, organization is very important to her. As is security. And comfort. She and I are are alike in so many ways, but so different in others. Keeping an orderly and organized home, making sure everything is clean and working properly and in it's place, curling up on the sofa with a nice cozy blanket -- those are the things she occupies her time with. And though I like to be able to find my keys in the morning and live in a home that isn't covered with dust, cleanliness and organization just aren't that important to me. And though last Saturday, when it was pouring rain, I was sooo happy to put on my sweats and watch TV on the sofa, comfort is merely incidental in my life. These are not the things I could focus upon.

To me, uncertainty makes life worth living. The idea of knowing what I will eat every day, where I will be every night, how long every item I own will last; that makes me uneasy. The mere thought makes me suffocate!

I aspire to have a life filled with adventure. Why sit on the sofa and watch the travel channel when you can get on a plane and travel there yourself? Why stay in a comfortable hotel when you can stay in a bed and breakfast with people who live there? Or a hostel? A tent? A yurt? Of course I plan my trips, pouring over Lonely Planet and Frommer's, but the plans are always flexible. A little more time here, a little less there; there's always a chance we have to spend a night sleeping in the car because the change in plans left us without a hotel room. But at the end of the day, that's better than a comfortable hotel room and a few day excursion and WAY better than a night on the sofa in front of the TV.

It's also very important for me to focus on exercise and health. It rather bothers me that sometimes these endeavors are presented in a superficial way. Yes, exercise will change your body shape, help you to lose weight, and maybe clothes will look better on you. But the real purpose of exercise is to allow you to live life to the fullest! I'm amazed at how incredibly our bodies operate, if we only take care of them. I so wish that more people would respectfully take care of their own bodies -- not as an act of selfishness, but as an act of celebration. Life really is better when you're healthy.

There are so many places I want to visit. So many mountains I want to climb, so many oceans I want to dive in, so many races I wish to run. And there are so many topics I want to learn more about. Do we ever stop learning? I certainly hope not. I often say that if I won the megabucks, I'd have degree in everything. And I probably still wouldn't know nearly as much as I wanted to. (Maybe that's why I seem to be attracted to nerds, geeks, and dorks!) Either they share my live of learning, or they serve as a mobile encyclopedia. Maybe I just need to get a blackberry so I can google anything at any time.

The good news is I'm doing my best to build a life of adventure, health, and education as we speak. Maybe years from now, I can write a blog post about how I focused fully on these area without having to give up a thing!