Before the World Ends

I just got the most recent issue of Popular Mechanics, which happens to be a great magazine, in case you were wondering. The cover story of this particular issue is "64 Things to do Before the World Ends."

In case you didn't know, the new end of the world date has been set for April 23. The mysterious Planet X, or Nibiru, is once again scheduled to come crashing into Earth, securing all of our deaths. I wouldn't worry too much though, Nibiru is notoriously tardy. In fact, it's never showed up to any of its prior appointments, and I wouldn't put any stock on it making this time.

So, back to Popular Mechanics. First of all, either there's false advertising going on or PM really needs an editor because the list, in reality, only has 55 things on it, not 64, but that's beside the point. I've always liked these sorts of lists, whether they are lists of books to read, movies to watch, places to visit, things to do, etc... they are fun, and inspire me to check things off of them and create my own. So for fun, here are the 64 55 things.

1. Catch a marlin from a kayak.
2. Explore a house that's under construction.
3. Seek out a quality doughnut that is worth it, and eat several.
4. Build yourself a nice workbench.
5. Use strangers for directions.
6. Stop at a creek and swim.
7. Mush a pack of Alaskan huskies.
8. Buy yourself a decent set of screwdrivers.
9. Shave your head.
10. Plant a tree.
11. Chop down a tree.
12. Do these things alone, at least once: See a movie, Travel, Sit at the bar and eat a steak.
13. Quarter-mile your Camry.
14. See a rocket launch.
15. Donate a kidney.
16. Wake up at dawn, high down to the beach, and watch the surfers before work.
17. Eat at Helen's Bar BQ in Tennessee.
18. Take a ferry in the Sacramento Delta.
19. Sleep at the top of a giant Sequoia.
20. Volunteer at a call for the disabled.
21. Three coats: warm parka, rain shell, vest.
22. Pick a week and watch every Place if the Apes movie, in order.
23. Drive on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
24. Drink a craft beer.
25. Roll naked in the snow under the northern lights.
26. Stay up all night in New York City.
27. Stay up all night in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
28. Visit a dark-sky site.
29. Enter a desert race.
30. Run down a sand dune.
31. Park at the end of the runway and watch the planes take off and land.
32. Ride in a sleeper car.
33. Take apart something you don't know how to fix.
34. Wake up in a tent in the rain.
35. Shoot pumpkins with arrows.
36. Hike Antelope Canyon.
37. Ride the mail boat out to Little Cranberry Island, Maine.
38. Get a pedicure.
39. When you're traveling to a place you've never been, rent a bicycle for the day.
40. Take a flight lesson.
41. Draw a map of every place you used to live, from memory.
42. Go to the Driftwood Restaurant in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Early.
43. Poop in the woods.
44. Draw a self-portrait at regular intervals.
45. Play pond hockey.
46. Ski the Lookout Bowl on Bald Mountain in Sun Valley, Idaho.
47. Get your smartphone usage down to a total of 30 minutes a day, not including playing music.
48. Walk a long way.
49. Get some good socks.
50. Build a table.
51. Write a screenplay.
52. Ice fish.
53. Assemble an emergency kit.
54. Experience great dinner food while it still exists.
55. Visit a Native American reservation.

I have done several thing on this list, would like to do several things on this list and have no desire whatsoever to do several things on this list. How about you? How many of these do you have? How many sound like something you would want to do? More importantly, what things are on your list? What life experiences have you had that have made an impact on you and you would want to repeat or think others should experience? What do you still want to experience or accomplish that you haven't yet? What's keeping you from doing those things?

We recently bought five chickens and are raising them in the garage until they are big enough to move outside and start laying eggs. Why did we do this? Because we'd been talking about it for years, and we finally decided to stop talking about doing things we want to do and just do them.

The world's not going to end on April 23, probably, but thousands of people's worlds will end that day and the next, and today and tomorrow. You don't know when your world will end, so make the most of the life you have. Don't hold back from experiencing life, from exploring, from going on adventures, from taking risks, from loving, from allowing God's beauty and joy, which He has knitted into the fabric of existence, from the grandest of journeys to the smallest of pleasures, to permeate your life.

What's on your list? Comment, with your "Before the World Ends" list, then go start living it, and when your done, make another one and repeat.