My Bucket List

Writing Goals

Finish my memoir and seek traditional publishing routes.

Complete a cohesive work of poetry to publish before release of memoir.

Work on something funny like A Day of Musings With @Bookmark_Terry.

Very Important Non-Writing-Related-But-Equally-Attainable Zone

Improve my health dramatically. Enjoy gyms and all the amazing machines there, which I do. Swim. Walk a lot. Be Terry in training starting n-o-w.

In the Not-Too-Wing-Nuttish Realm of Possibility

Make money so I can keep travelling, studying, and immersing myself in healing, nurturing, culturally diverse, and intellectually stimulating environments.

Take a hot air balloon ride, something a friend made clear I will do alone.

Take a long flight overseas and ride in one of those podlike seats. That’d be awesome!

For fun only — nothing intentionally activist- or abuse-related – start writing a purely fictional novel. Fashion out on the page some of the imaginary places, people, and scenarios which live in my head.

Chisel out a chunk of time to live alone in a quiet remote place. Simply. Actively. Be part of a larger community of people I enjoy. It’s top priority that I feel completely safe there. No worries about my well-being if I go for a walk or leave my window open while I sleep.

Play baseball with my Commonweal friends. Get a grand slam, steal two bases, and slide into home faster than a frozen bottle of pop explodes when I remove the cap. All in two plays.

Take a scuba-diving lesson and engage my lifelong fascination with life below the surface of the ocean.

Learn to play the guitar. Return to the piano. Take up the African drums.

Do a stand-up comedy gig . . . until my inevitable fainting.

Learn to love myself better.

Accept my frailties and flaws. Do not self-punish when I make mistakes.

Keep these ‘muscles’ taut so I don’t slip backwards and lose more precious time.

Find some way to get my teeth fixed so I’m not hyper-conscious of speaking in public or holding back big smiles.

Practice video-taping myself speaking and somehow tolerate the outcome, so I can embrace v-logging as another practical way to present myself.

Embrace this new passion and set up my first tele-course.

Figure out if an organized religion fits for me or relieve myself of that burden. Continue practice of the spirituality I observe daily and with passion.

Love and cherish people and let them know it.

Gain self-acceptance in some sustaining way.

Truly forgive myself for the extremes to which I hurt myself to survive.

Buy another pair of shoes and a hybrid car.

Thought-stop when I tell myself I’m damaged and ugly.

Not-Too-Likely-But-Sure-Would-Love-To Department

Find time and money to finish my degree. Do this for the sake of learning, and filling in gaps in my knowledge, not to say I got that piece of paper.  Well, with where I came from? No. I would need to brag.

Stop feeling ‘less than’ others, instead of ‘equal to.’

Go to the DRC and other parts of Africa. Meet with some of my longtime Facebook friends from there.

Also, I’d like to spend time with organizations that take care of children and women rescued from human trafficking. This would also include visiting women who are healing in hospital.

Travel to Bali, Brazil. Nepal, India, Iceland. FindHorn. Tasmania. Greenland. Jamaica (to experience a woman-positive holiday).

Spend time with my nephews in Trinidad where their grandfather was born and a huge part of their roots lie.

See all of Canada and the USA.

Win the lotto or make enough money to anonymously open a beautiful facility where women who need generalized healing time get just that. They could include victims of violent crime, those experiencing health crises or emotional exhaustion. Also, women who can’t pay, don’t.

To extend the imaginary loot scenario, I would also give to organizations I believe in–especially ones for women that continually face funding cuts. I did this with some of my criminal injuries compensation money years ago and would give anything to have the resources to do so again. There are so many groups run by incredible people who are doing amazing work; I don’t want them overlooked any longer.

In The Not-Quite-Finished Department

Volume Two list to follow.