Monthly Archives: August 2011

The Impossible List

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I used to keep a list of all the things I wanted to do and check them off as I did them. It worked. Sort of. But then I realized that I want more.

I have goals. They’re good goals. But they’re big.

Maybe impossible.

So this is my list of impossible things. It’s the stuff that I always wanted to accomplish “someday,” but never gave myself enough credit to try. It’s the stuff that’s so important to me that to fail is scarier than never trying at all.

But screw that. I’m trying. I want to do something meaningful and good, not just show up every day.

This is a living list, and I’ll be adding to it, crossing things off, and blogging about it.

Original inspiration for the impossible list is Joel Runyon’s Impossible List. Check his out, read the Impossible Manifesto, check my list out (below), make your own, and let me know how it’s going!


Visit The Impossible League
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Starting The Impossible List

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About a year before I turned 30, I freaked out a little. I was about to be 30 and there were things in my life I’d just never done that seemed really, really important. So I started my 30 Before 30 list, inspired by Celine. Overall, I think it went well. For that year, I felt powerful– like I was finally taking my life into my own hands and getting things done. But it was a bucket list. There was a deadline, and the list did not evolve. (Well, it did. I got rid of stuff. But that wasn’t really in the spirit of the whole 30 Before 30 thing, since I ended up not doing all 30 things.)

Joel Runyon, The Blog of Impossible Things

I’m 30 now, and I don’t want to do a bucket list anymore. I want to do the impossible list. Joel Runyon is, if not the inventor of the impossible list, at least the most vocal proponent of it. He says the impossible list is not a bucket list.

A bucket list is static, the impossible list evolves… A bucket list gets smaller, the impossible list gets bigger… A bucket list is focused what you do before you die, the impossible list is focused on how you live… A bucket list revoles around you, the impossible list is focused on others… A bucket list is focused on the event, the impossible list is focused on the journey… A bucket list has accomplishments, the impossible list has meaning… A bucket list is made up of someday dreams, the impossible list requires action today… A bucket list expires, the impossible list aspires.

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The Stoplight Kiss

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I seem to have great luck with stories about what happens at stop lights. I’ve got another good one for you today.

Yesterday morning, I was driving to work, listening to a sad song and thinking sad thoughts, when I came to a stop light and looked in my rearview mirror.

Behind me was an old beater of a car with duct tape holding the passenger side window together. The couple inside was laughing. It caught my eye because I usually see single-passenger cars full of grumpy commuters in the morning, but here were a man and a woman laughing hysterically.

I kept watching them because they made me smile, and suddenly the man leaned over the center console and kissed the woman. Thoroughly. When he sat back into his seat, they were both still laughing.

I laughed, too. I couldn’t help it. The combination of joy and love and euphoria, despite a morning commute and a crappy car, was enough to slap me out of my self-induced funk. This is why I read romance. This is why I write romance. This is why I believe in the power of love.

So here’s wishing you a good laugh and a great kiss, even if you’re only the witness.