What do you wish you could do more every day?

I paid respects to the family of my recently passed classmate today. It is so hard to say goodbye—especially when the people you are saying goodbye to are so young. Thinking about this friend and other friends who have passed moved me to reflect on my life. One question I asked myself is what is it that I wish I could do more of every day.

As a full-time educator, I spend a lot of time (even during summers, breaks, weekends, and holidays) working. As I think about what I want to do more of, working is not on the list. If I make it to the point when I qualify for retirement, I have a whole list of things I want to do. And I really do have a list. It is in my Notes app on my iPhone. It includes things like gardening, exercising, traveling, and cooking. One of my goals is to go through my collection of cookbooks and try to make all (or a lot of) the recipes in each book. I’d love to share my cooking attempts with my friends. I want to make t-shirt quilts with the shirts I’ve collected that remind me of the experiences I have had in my life. I want to continue blogging. I feel like this exercise helps my brain and memory. And I love revisiting treasured memories. I want to learn to take great photos. I want to learn–languages, cooking, photography, history, art, and so much more. I want to read books and take naps. I want to go on hikes and take my dog for walks. I want to pick flowers from my yard and make lei. I want to work my brain with sudoku and crossword puzzles.

I don’t want to spend more time cleaning the house but I do wish my house were cleaner. So, I need to figure out how to balance this in my life. I know that part of the solution is to reduce the ‘things’ I have in my home but that is hard to do when others in my home don’t support that philosophy. What do you wish you could do more of every day? Living Hilo Style.