Day 1 - What's Important?

#1. Make a list of your top 4-5 important things. What’s most important to you? What do you value most? What 4-5 things do you most want to do in your life? Simplifying starts with these priorities, as you are trying to make room in your life so you have more time for these things. Leo Babauta - Zen Habits

Oh, happy day! My first mini challenge involves list making - my favorite! Although, I must admit, making a list of to-dos that I'll never do, or essential items to pack on a week long camping adventure is a bit more my speed.

1. Right away - family. This includes both blood and soul; current and future.
My parents were not only highly successful parents, but are now my friends, who are actually a blast to have around for anything. My aunts and uncles are riots, and my grandparents are realistic, progressive, and highly in tune with my life.
With a fairly narrow, but incredibly close and ancient group of friends, they are deserving of nothing less than the title of family. We are no longer in seventh grade with our flip flopping of who we feel like being this week. We are committed, and therefore, like family, have no choice but to love each other and stick around.
I say "future" because my future family is equally as important. I suppose as a result of my own awesome family, nuclear and extended, my first desire is to continue the awesomeness with my own (gasp) offspring.

2. Travel/Experience
I love living in a familiar place, with my family a mere stone's throw way. But I was born with the travel bug...more like travel parasite. It doesn't just give me the occasional itch, but rather consumes my everyday thoughts until I am forced to create whatever plan the current budget will allow in order to purge the invader. Now I'm not talking about luxary hotels, big cities, world famous restaurants, or must see tourist visiting centers. More like anything that gives me a shot of perspective and refreshes my senses and thoughts. This is why I specified "Experience." Travel is the doing - you must physically travel in order to experience. Experience is ultimate goal. At times it is the mere act of taking the endless road trip that excites me, but it is what I take away that rejuvenates me. (Note conflict: uncontrollable desire to travel vs. paralyzing fear of flying. I have flown. I will fly. But the conflict is real.)

3. Environmental Sustainability/Conservation
I despise the smell of petrulli, wash my hair religiously, and watch football. I just want to clarify. However, when it comes to perspectives on the world - physically and socially - I suppose I could be classified as somewhat of a (gulp) "hippie" ... or at least a wanna-be. I won't even begin expressing all of my thoughts about our current warped view of needs vs. wants and what should and shouldn't be exploited by our ignorant human selves, because I'll end up with a dissertation, and apparently that is not the same thing as a blog. So I'm just going to leave it at: It is thirdly important to me that I be part of the necessary change (at minimum within my own family) in perspective and treatment of the earth and our cohabitation with it.

4. Mental Awareness to result in Physical Health ... and vice versa
I realize this is a bit of a cop out - combining two very general ideas into one, in order fill in my fourthly important thing - but this is really the most logical way for me to express one idea that I find highly important. (I also didn't want to waste a spot on just yoga, or workout, or eat right, or see more live music.) Those are just players in the overall game. It is highly important to me that I maintain some realism. Rather than falling into place with the other mental zombies, who turn their self awareness switches on and off depending on their daily routine, I want to always be on. And consequently, I want my daily routine to be supporting this mental self awareness. I want to always be myself and taking care of myself. I think it dangerous to save this only for the weekends, when we don't "have" to guzzle large amounts of caffeine to get through a day predetermined by someone else. The phrases "just get me to the weekend" and "just get me to summer break" make me cringe.

Yay! Some clear road signs for my journey.