10 Goals As I Approach, and After I Turn, 50

Again, as I did with My First Book of 2019 post today, without further ado, here they are:

1. Walk.
2. Alcohol and soda once a month.
3. Continue to sleep well.
4. Read a book a week.
5. Sleeping with Bread daily.
6. Go to church once a month.
7. Go on day trip once a month.
8. Visit parents/sister once a month.
9. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
10. Talk less, smile more.

A few explanations:

• These were adapted from my initial 25 Things Before I Turn 50 post.
• We live in a small town, that is made up of a lot of “older people.” Many have retired here, many have lived here all of their lives. One common thing among many of them: they walk, usually in the morning. We have one neighbor who makes a regular loop through town; two other neighbors who go to walk at the local cemetery. Up until last year, we had a 94-year-old woman who walked the neighborhood (it’s her son who makes the loop through town). All these people walking got me thinking, it hasn’t hurt them. Maybe I need to try this too (other than walking to and from the car, at work and at home, and well, you normal upright existence). So I will.
• Sleeping with Bread is a book by Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn. It starts with this story: “During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.”” From there, the Linns show how to set up a way of using The Examen from St. Ignatius each night by asking two simple questions: For what am I most grateful? For what am I least grateful? Those questions can be worded in other ways too, but the idea is to examine your day each day.
• The “quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” is inspired by my mother who often quotes this from the Book of James in the Bible, Chapter 1, Verse 19: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” This is one sometimes I have special trouble.
• The “talk less, smile more” is from the song “Aaron Burr, Sir” from the musical Hamilton.

I wasn’t going to have a One Word for 2019, but my wife came up with one this morning. So in addition to this post and My First Book of 2019 post, I also will have a One Word for 2019 post.

What are your personal goals for 2019? Reading goals? I shared my reading goals last week.