A List: 30 by 30

I am 51 weeks away from being 30. Here's hoping I can accomplish these mostly fun (but some challenging) goals!


Here goes nothing:

❏ Read 30 books: 10 memoir/biography, 10 novels/YA fiction, 5 challenging, 5 classics

❏ Write letters to 30 people who have significantly shaped part of my life

❏ Skydive with BFF before January

❏ Eat adventurously: try a new restaurant in Greenville each month, try a new recipe from a different country each month (and invite friends), if something new is offered, try it (within reason)

❏ Visit 3 states I have never been to

❏ Get a new stamp in my passport (repeats don't count)

❏ Go to a play/live performance

❏ Ride in a cab

❏ See 3 bands I have never before seen in concert

❏ Climb a new mountain

❏ Go to a game at Fenway park

❏ Study world geography/cultures, 2 months per continent (Australia and Antarctica combined)

❏ Complete a challenge each month (i.e. no chocolate, no eating out, etc.)

❏ Keep a gratitude notebook. Write at least one sentence a day.

❏ Take a pottery or woodworking class

❏ Just keep running – 3 days a week, Mud Run, Swamp Rabbit, Half Marathon in the fall

❏ 30 random acts of kindness

❏ 30 movies off the 100 greatest movies as suggested by AFI

❏ Visit the Cali cousins

❏ Rough draft a memoir of my 20s

❏ 5 days a week: floss, make my bed, no dishes in sink at night

❏ Successfully roll a kayak and go white water kayaking

❏ Attempt to learn djembe or another percussion instrument

❏ Reach and maintain lifetime goal weight

❏ Create a bucket list for the next 30 years to come

❏ Drink a cup of black coffee or tea once a week, at least, without becoming addicted

❏ Read the whole collection of one author (Roald Dahl or Lewis Carroll, perhaps)

❏ Cut my wardrobe in half (or more)

❏ Find the best froyo shop in town

 

❏ Drive to the beach and back in one day (with less than 3 days notice)
 
*The list is subject to change if any brilliant ideas come up throughout the year.

I would like to accomplish as many of these as possible with people, so if any sound interesting to you, let me know and we can conquer it together!

A List: 28 by 29

After seemingly on a whim chopping my hair and getting my ear pierced, I was asked what had gotten into me by a few people. And I think it was my 29th birthday coming up quickly over the horizon and wanting to add more things to the list of things making 28 the best year yet.

So, in the Keigley kitchen, the Sunday 2 weeks before my birthday, we made a list.

28 things to do before I turn 29 in 2 weeks. Averaging out to 2 things a day.

And as it turns out, a list of things to accomplish in a short amount of time makes life way more fun to me who functions highly off of accomplishing things and seeing work complete. That is a principle about myself I have learned in the last year or so. Giving myself challenges and things to look forward to on a regular basis really does help to make life more fun and create more happiness.

And here is the list:

1. Chop hair - done, thanks Torrye for the initial cut, and read this about the rest.

2. Pierce ear - after a whim trip to the mall to try and do this and not accomplish it a few weeks prior, because you can't pierce cartilage at the piercing pagoda anymore, Torrye, Kendall and myself ventured to Bad Monkey, where our friend is a tattoo artist, and Torrye and I were pierced.

3. Eat Indian food - it seems my tastes have drastically changed. I want to try any and all new foods in front of me (well not all necessarily). So Indian it was. I have never had it. So we went to Chai Pani in Asheville. And it was mmm mmmm good!
 

4. Jog a whole lap around the lake at Look Up - until about a month or 2 ago, I disliked running. And with my tastes it seems my activity styles have changed. I like running, er, jogging is more accurate, now but hadn't ventured off the treadmill. So I did. And I liked it.

5. Sunrise at the orchard - for being the lover of sunrise that I am, I hadn't made my way to the orchard for sunrise at camp in my 2+ years here. I can see it from my kitchen, so I guess I thought that was good enough. I thought wrong. It was beautiful from the hill and well worth the cold.
 

6. Watch a foreign film - as far as I could remember, I had not seen one, but then I remembered I saw Amelie years ago, but it was on the list, so I did it. I wanted an artsy subtitled flick, but couldn't get my hands on one in a reasonable amount of time. So I watched The Gods Must be Crazy. It was an enjoyable film.

7. Get a pet - I bought a beta fish. It died in 3 days. It was sad. I bought a new one 2 days ago. He is still alive. His name is Franklin.
 

8. Drive thru – pay behind you - Did this at Starbucks, and we had purchased the same drink.

9. Get rid of 28 things in my house - I cheated on this one. The recycling was overflowing so I took it out and I am certain it consisted of plenty more than 28 things.

10. Sleep in my hammock - I also cheated on this one. Sleep in the hammock happened, yes, for about an hour, but there was a light shining in and a dog barking and I was in a basement hanging from rafters and decided this was silly and I wanted a good nights sleep.

11. Hike table rock - and in record time! 2 hours and 45 minutes hike time. We enjoyed the top for an hour or so. I got terrible blisters from new shoes. It was possibly the most enjoyable hike I have ever been on.
 

 

12. Write a poem - limerick to be exact. See below:

 

13. Write 28 notes - mailed off this week.

14. Finish an unfinished project - moved a bench to the campfire ring and straightened it for a more functional and enjoyable evening gathering.

15. Buy something you don’t need - Willy Wonka was the choice. I have been picking it up in the $5 movie bin every visit to Walmart for the past month and putting it down and saying, I don't need this. So I bought it.

 

16. Finish a book - The Happiness Project was the book of choice. Great read. And I think I might be happier because of it.

17. Drink a whole cup of black coffee - why I want to do this, people ask. To be more socially adept is the answer. And I have now had 3 whole cups of black coffee. Disliking it less and less with each sip.
 

18. Complete a painting - with not having an art room currently, I haven't been painting. So I painted.

 

19 - 21. 3 things off Pinterest boards - Granola, Zucchini Chips, and Skinny Peanut Butter Pie. All were delish! (except the first batch of granola that burned.)

22. Work out 28 miles - With the hike to Table Rock and the new joy in running, this was pretty easy actually. I went well over.
 

23. Talk to a friend - I caught up with a friend that I hadn't spoken to in 5 years. It was great.

24. Help a friend - This one morphed from the original list. I helped the rooms with her wedding invites.

25. Write a letter to the editor - I wrote one. I didn't send it. Cheating? maybe.

26. Eat at the Hungry Drover - a lovely little establishment about 10 minutes from camp. The food is super good and not super over priced.

27. Complete a playlist for my phone - I did not accomplish this one before the deadline, and haven't fully yet. I did however make a running mix for the phone, so that was a start.

28. Find a new band to like - thanks to Kevin and Mitchell for their recommendations. I now like Black Prairie and Run River North.


* next up, 30 things by 30. I hope to complete the list this weekend. Apparently this is a popular thing to do and I have found some fun resources via Google search. Suggestions still welcome.

29, you have big shoes to fill

Dear 29th year of life,

You have your work cut out for you. Why, you ask? Well, that would be because 28 was the best year of life yet. (That may have been because 27 was a pretty rough and tumble year and the only way to go was up.)

Why was 28 the best year? Let me tell you. And what better way than a list of 28 reasons : )
*This is not an exhaustive list. It is just the first 28 things that come to my mind.

1. Being home for my birthday for the first time in years and bringing mom back with me for a visit.
2. Israel. My first real overseas travel. Wonderful, beautiful, fantastic, educational. I would go back right now.
3. Debt free! School loans and a trip to Israel all paid for and still holding at debt free.
4. 2 contra weekends in places we didn't really know anyone with my friend Aly and the Great Bear Trio!
5. Home for the 4th of July. (I would choose the 4th over Christmas any year)
6. Checking off 2 baseball stadiums from the list. (and 2 states in the process)
7. My awesome roommate, Lindsey.
8. So many new and wonderful friends!
9. Another year with a (mostly) reliable car and no car payment.
10. Eleuthera trip and all of its wonderful-ness.
11. Many opportunities for learning and growth.
12. Losing 40 pounds!
13. Learning to enjoy running. Never in my life did I think this would happen.
14. Catching up with some old friends.
15. Wick-Fam reunion 2K12 in November.
16. Friends that become more and more like family.
17. The list of 28 things to do before 28. (another post is forthcoming on this one)
18. Cutting my hair short (for me, still long for others) and liking it!
19. Hiking Table Rock last week in a personal best time and not feeling the need to stop on the way up aside from the blisters forming from my new hiking shoes.
20. Getting to support and encourage many friends as they left the country or their regular life to seek what God was leading them to.
21. Random gifts from family just because.
22. Choosing positive over negative more often than in years past. And learning that it is a choice.
23. Reading so many good books. I love books!
24. Learning and growing in my faith and beliefs more than in the years past.
25. Playing in a Volleyball adult rec league.
26. Seeing Switchfoot yet again. Oh how I love them. (and happy birthday to my birthday buddy Chad, the drummer)
27. Meeting more people that I have weird connections with making the world smaller.
28. Ending the year with a positive and hopeful outlook.

There were many other things that made 28 great, but for now, I will leave it at this list. Here's to 29 kicking the tail off 28 in great-ness and many more great years of life to go.

Sincerely,
28th year

How was your last year of life great?

Kindred

I believe I learned the idea of a kindred spirit from Anne of Green Gables. Since learning this I have grown to love dearly many people who have shown to be my kindred.

Kindred defined officially is a family member or a relative or kin. When adding spirit to it, that is when the word gains the more meaningful significance to me. Of course, family is kindred and share many ideas and beliefs and joys in common. But when you meet the spirit of someone else that connects to yours outside of any familial bond and sometimes outside of any relational ties that make sense, then a true kindred is met.

I have had the privilege to meet so many wonderful people in the past 10 years of life living away from home; during college, in Raleigh, at YCG, and now living in the outskirts of Greenville.

Some of these kindreds come and go and are enjoyed only for a season.

Some of them stick around for years.

And some get a little lost in the years of growing up, but then magically they come around again.

This week I reconnected with one of those kindreds. We may not even have known at the time we met we were kindred, but it is clear now. A friend from college, whom I had not spoken to in 5 years but kept up with enough via facebook, seemed to be looking down the same scope of life, so we decided it was time to catch up.

It was as if no time had passed. Except much time had passed. More time than we were actually near and in each other's lives regularly had passed. But we were still connected.

We separately came to similar stances on many things in life.

We have the same thoughts in regard to our chosen school for higher education and both wrote a strangely similar letter to them via a professor or alumni survey expressing our very similar thoughts.

We both see the world from a perspective of hope, but dire need.

We have different paths to get us where we both currently rest, but we seem to rest very similarly on many outlooks in life.

That is a kindred.

And that is why I love meeting those that are my kindred. The people that you can lose contact with for years, but still end up standing next to each other in beliefs. The people that you can see every day and still truly know that there is a deeper connection and that someday, if your lives drift apart, you can drift back together with ease. The people that look at you and know you without looking at you and wanting to put you in a certain mold. The people that may be so different from you others can't see why you are friends, but you are.

I am so very thankful and blessed to know and have known so many people that I would consider my kindred, whether they are currently walking with me through life or they have drifted away for a season.

Twinkle, Twinkle

"You should see the stars tonight

How they shimmer and shine so bright

Against the black they look so white

Coming down from such a height

To reach me now"

I have used this song in a post before, but it was the second verse that I wrote about last. This time the first verse is what resonates in my inner deep. It is a simple song, but it is a song that sings to me where many others cannot.

Lately, in the crisp, cool evenings, as I return home from wherever I have been I have had a more keen sense to look to the sky.

I haven't been stargazing just for the sake of stargazing lately, not like I did when I lived at Camp Greenville. Mostly I just catch a glimpse and pause to look up here and there as I continue on with the task or adventure at hand.

While in Eleuthera, many of us took up the practice of stargazing at the end of our days and I was reminded of how I do enjoy it. And as we all connected over this in Eleuthera, a few of us got together to relive our evening activity and enjoy a crisp, clear evening under the same blanket of stars we had previously enjoyed together.

this is with a fancy shmancy camera

we could see a lot of stars, but the camera could see more

(photo creds to David Broughton)

 

 who knew there were so many!

 

 it was not warm, but that made it more of an adventure.

 

Indeed, against the black they looked so white and were shimmering and shining bright.

Under the night sky and the magnificent blanket of twinkling lights I am overwhelmed by a deeper love for the Creator and the world He holds together. To think God just made this, out of nothing, He imagined it and gave it life. He created it. For us to enjoy and for life to happen and for us to find Him. To reach us.

The words of that song and the beauty of the sky fill me with hope in a way that many other things cannot.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Back in high school I read an interview with Julia Stiles where she gave a do's and don'ts list for her life.

I only remember one of the things on the list and it was a do:

Cut your own hair.

Since reading it, I have daydreamed about just chopping my hair myself and seeing what happened. I love long hair and although I donate it every other year or so I still manage to keep it rather long and have never had the gusto to just chop it up and hope for the best.

This donation year however, something got into me, I got a little more adventurous.

The big cut of the full ponytail was done by a friend and was a few more inches than usual.

With it being shorter, it needed a little shaping as opposed to my usual no layers/straight across cut.

I considered my options to shape it up. Others encouraged me to go to a professional hairstylist. As it turns out the hair salon brought up more anxiety in me than going to the dentist (and I have a rather strong dislike of the dentist). I have not had my hair professionally cut since the 11th grade. After opening the door to Great Clips and immediately shutting it and turning around I went back to the drawing board for ideas.

The only viable option that came to me was just to do it myself. So that is what I did. I finally, legitimately, cut my own hair.

And I love it.

Don't get me wrong, when I let it dry and fall straight as straight can be, as my hair does, it looks like a home haircut. But when I give it some love with the curling iron, it doesn't look half bad.

So, Ms.Stiles, thanks for that encouraging push and idea that has been hanging around in my brain for the past 10 years or so.

If you are ever considering cutting your own hair, I say do it! Hair grows, how bad can it really be?

 the change.

*In case you were wondering where I donate to, or if you may want to make the cut yourself check out Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

 

There's No I in Team

Upon entering the van Friday morning, most everyone riding in it was a perfect stranger to me. The only contact I had with anyone was through 2 brief pre-trip meetings and email correspondence with the leader.

Upon exiting the van in Ft. Pierce, FL 10 hours later, it seemed that these people were no longer strangers to me, but people who had the potential to be lovely additions to my circle of friends.

front row: Steph, Taylor, me, Joe, Abby, Missy

back row: Jonathan, Chad, Ryan, David, Ted, Tish

(and according to this picture, as much as I continually try to deny this fact, I am short)

 

On the team we had some married folk with children ranging in ages from wee ones to college age. And we had those of us that fall into the unmarried 20 something category (well one 19 yr old, but close enough).

 

With varying backgrounds, skills, and life paths and most of us hardly knowing each other, we meshed surprisingly well.

 

One of my favorite things throughout the week was how the world seemed to get smaller with each passing conversation. Connections were made and commonalities found.

 

Missy, who is a hoot to say the least, spent a number of years in a bible study with Leanne, my boss, and knows many of the people I work and play with.

 

Abby went to UNC where she had a best friend who happened to be a girl I volunteered with and thought very highly of at church when I lived in Raleigh.

 

Jonathan and David went to a small Christian college in the same division as mine and were quite likely at some of the same tournaments over our crisscrossing years of school.

 

The Dosters worked with the YMCA of Greenville and I am certain our paths crossed at some Y guides weekends and training we did when I worked for Camp Greenville.

 

Since the trip it seems that people I meet and continue to get to know keep falling into this weird connections category. At times, like when standing on the cliff at the Glass Window Bridge, the world seems so big and I seem so small, but at times when I meet people who know people who I know from other seemingly distant areas of life it seems that we are all connected. Much more connected that we can even realize.

 

 (just behind us is a very large cliff and drop off into the Atlantic)

 

In recounting the trip and the people I was with, I really do not think I could trade any of them out for a better fitting someone. Although that trip may be all I share with some of them, I am pleased to have had them pass through my small part of the world for just a brief moment.

What Did You Do?

With this being a form of mission trip the question of what we did or accomplished has been asked frequently. So here are some of the more tangible things we did:

Thing 1:
Helped the Doster family prepare (and move into) their house on the island.

They had only arrived a few weeks before us and have been living temporarily in an apartment near the center in which we stayed. Their soon to be permanent residence had not been lived in for a few years and needed some TLC. We cleaned the rooms, mopped the mold off the ceilings, moved furniture, fixed fascia boards, hung bug screens, landscaped, painted, fixed some problematic roof spots, and a few other things I am sure to be forgetting.

The Dosters' belongings that flew over with us.

The Dosters' home, Palm Cottage. 

Not a bad view to work with.

The girls room after we cleaned it and moved in their things.

Thing 2:
Worshipped with a local church and hung out with some beautiful children.

We had the opportunity to go to church in a Haitian settlement and hang out with the local children for an afternoon of fun at the beach. We took 40+ children to the beach and a place called Preacher's Cave. I made a few friends on the bus ride there and back. Two of which were sisters Ronisha and Ronika who at first were rather quiet and reserved, but then became bustling balls of energy after they got used to us. I could not have imagined a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The beach.

 

Ronisha.

 

 Preacher's cave.

 

 The bus ride back after we dropped off half of the group.

I can't remember the name of the girl I was sitting with, but she was great.

 

The bus we hauled the kids in.

(and ourselves most of the week)

Thing 3:
Participated in a Young Life after school program.

On Monday afternoon we participated in a Young Life after school program led by a girl named Sarah who has also relocated to the island. This was a little more awkward and out of my realm of comfort than the beach day, but it was a blast none the less. We danced around and sang songs and tried to chat with students that didn't seem to want to talk to us. I took the opportunity to tag along while taking them back to their settlements. This was the best part of the experience to me. To see where they live and hear them interact with each other without any expectation was a great way to get into their culture a little deeper.

Hanging with the Bahamian Young Life kids.

As far as tangible things go, that is most of what we accomplished.

But if the trip opened my mind to new ideas and affirmed things I have been learning lately, one of those things that is becoming ever more clear would be: although seeing tangible physical evidence of work being done is gratifying, it might not be the most important thing after all.