Today, I turn 49. As I approach half a century of life, here are 25 things I want to do before that milestone:

1. Lose 40 pounds.
2. Walk.
3. Walk to work at least once a week during summer, fall, and spring.
4. Run in one 5K.
5. No food after 9 p.m.
6. Go to bed by 11:30 p.m. each night.
7. Wake by 8 a.m. each day.
8. Alcohol only once a month.
9. No soda except when having alcohol once a month.
10. Read a book a week.
11. Read 10 nonfiction books.
12. Continue to play Solitaire and listen to chill music before going to bed.
13. Sleeping with Bread daily.
14. Along with SWB, photo a day of what most grateful for that day.
15. Go to church once a month.
16. Go on day trip once a month.
17. Date night every pay week with Kim.
18. Visit parents/sister once a month.
19. Keep to blog schedule. Wednesday. Friday. Saturday. Sunday.
20. Practice what you preach.
21. Be quick to listen.
22. Slow to speak.
23. Slow to anger.
24. Talk less.
25. Smile more.

A few explanations:

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 each day to examine your 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,

The “talk less, smile more” is from the song “Aaron Burr, Sir” from the musical Hamilton: