A Patchwork Life: writing, teaching, learning more each day

I’ve already made a life list of all the experiences, big and small, I’d like to have in my life. I’ve also blogged about centering myself and my values and how much I enjoy The Happiness Project and the Happiness Project Toolbox.

Now I’m going to make a Love List and keep it here, for myself but also for the public nature, and also to remind myself to keep adding to it like I have my Life List. I’d also like to push deeper, like Kristin says in her post, to find the reasons behind each item. I’m still thinking about how to indicate that–indenting? different bullets? color-coding? But I like having that aspect appear in the list too.

My Love List

I love self-reflection. Sometimes this looks like a silly Facebook quiz, other times like a personality or psychology quiz on the internet; other times, it looks like the six years (and counting) I’ve spent blogging, or the years I’ve spent journaling in notebooks. I love thinking about who I am and who I want to be, and examining different aspects of my life to help me think about both the present and the future me.

I love personal stories. I love reading personal blogs, I love reading perzines, I love confessional poetry, I love autobiographies and biographies. I love seeing an era, movement or decade of history through the lens of one person’s life, whether that is a tycoon, a president, a poet or an activist. I love seeing something in another person’s life that helps me understand my own better.

I love reading. My entire life has been shaped and influenced by the books, poems, articles, and essays I’ve read. It has helped me escape, educate, learn, express, empathize and expand more time than I can count. I never stop being amazed by the power of language.

I love writing. I’ve been writing my entire life, whether it’s public or private, essays, fiction, poetry, journaling. Writing is an integral part of my thinking process. It helps me figure out the world, helps keep me in touch with myself, and helps me be the kind of person I want to be in the kind of world I want to live in.

I love going to art museums. Whether it’s the ones I love in my own city or those around the world, from Chicago to Venice, Italy, that I’ve visited, it’s one of my favorite ways to spend a day. I love the visual stimulation, so many different ways to think about beauty, the beautiful spaces the art is often housed in, the way it adds to the character of a city, and just the very idea of wandering around o experience something so seemingly impractical, yet so essential.