My 2009 Mondo Beyondo List

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down to write my Mondo Beyondo list. What is a Mondo Beyondo list, you ask? Andrea Scher, who has been making her own lists for years, describes the Mondo Beyondo list as a

...list of things that are outrageous, wild, and may not even happen for 5 or 10 years from now. This is the list of things that are SO JUICY and unlikely to happen that you are afraid to even write them down.

I love the idea of this kind of list, because words are powerful, even ones that are written down only to be hidden away. Words birth things. They make things come alive that were once only ideas. Making a list like this is dreaming out loud, which holds out the promise of both terror and liberation, and this, my friends, was an opportunity I didn't want to let go.

To create my own list, I sat down and wrote for ten minutes. Then, after a short break, I wrote for another ten minutes. I didn't think about it beforehand. I just did it as spontaneously as I knew how, writing down whatever popped into my head that I might want to do, and here is what came out of that stream-of-consciousness dreaming:

My Mondo Beyondo List, 2009

1. Write a novel
2. Write a work of non-fiction
3. Ride in a hot air balloon
4. Live somewhere in Europe for at least six months
5. Go to Spain
6. Write a book of poetry
7. Make a living from my writing, photography, and other creative pursuits
8. Learn to paint
9. Live in a cabin in the woods for a while
10. Be paid to travel around the world and photograph people and tell their stories
11. Move to the East coast of Canada
12. Record an album of music that I've written and performed
13. Get my university degree in English or Creative Writing
14. Eat finger sandwiches during mid-afternoon tea in Bermuda again
15. Love a child
16. Raise chickens
17. Let go of clutter and keep a clean house
18. Become a regular practitioner of yoga
19. Publish a book of my photography
20. Show other people how to find their hearts
21. Show my photographs in a gallery
22. Hike through Tibet
23. Visit and photograph a monastery
24. Have a pizza named after me
25. Go to the bottom of the ocean in a bathysphere, if that's what one is even called
26. Let go of the restrictive fingers of judgment
27. Embrace others openly
28. Learn to cook well and love doing it
29. Take time to sing on a regular basis, whether it be alone, in a choir, or with my cheap ukulele
30. Let myself rest when it comes to the passage of time and mortality, because guarding against it means guarding my heart
31. Go through each of my things and allow myself to get rid of everything that weighs down my spirit, because I do not owe those things my protection
32. Own a shop that sells a smattering of my favourite things of the moment, be they books, teapots, shoes, etc.
33. Take time to hone my doll-making skills
34. Take a trip across Canada on the train, documenting the whole trip and its people, of course
35. Be present for and photograph a baby's birth
36. Look back on the earth from outer space
37. Be patient with time, my art, my writing, and those I love
38. Laugh more
39. Believe in myself

My Mondo Beyondo list surprises me. It reveals a longing to combine travel and creativity that I had not put together before. It uncovers a yearning for domesticity that I wouldn't have expected, either. And that bit about Tibet? Who knew?! This exercise was so enlightening that I think I am going to have to make it an annual event so that I can stay acquainted with myself.

What would be on your list if you could achieve anything your heart desired?

Comments

[Nat]

Number one on my list would have to be to find a job that makes me happy and gives me satisfaction.

[Mrs. Wilson]

Alrighty. I LOVE THIS.

For #10, 28, 31, 35, 38 - ME TOO
#17 - HECK YES
#20 - Can you do this for me?
#34 - Can I go with you?

I may have to make such a list.

[carrie]

That took my breath away!

And I think you are right, "words birth things." It will be interesting for you to see exactly what comes your way!

:)

[Andi]

What a lovely list! I don't see why you couldn't accomplish a bunch of those!

I think when you do another one next year, you should also look back at this one and see which ones you have done! It would be a wonderful way for reflecting on what had happened in the year.

And those things you didn't do, maybe you'll have a reason they didn't happened that can be rectified for the following year!

[Melistress]

I made a list once. In fact, I think I still have it, scribbled on a page of an old and tattered black hardcover sketchbook I used to carry around with me in university. I was in my more boycrazy years where I seemed to believe that I was defined by the men I was with. Yeah, that worked out well for me.

Anyway, this list, of course, were the attributes that I would give to a perfect man. I found this man, but then I also discovered that my list had loopholes and that the universe delights in finding them.

So yeah, fun exercise. Maybe I will tempt fate again.

[Marilyn (A Lot of Loves)]

It seems to be a day for lists out here in Blogland. I just read a few other blogs with lists.

I think it's a really cool idea. I've never really sat down and written out goals (big or small) before. I tend to just have vague ideas of goals in my mind.

I've always wanted to travel across Canada in a train...or even just from Vancouver to Calgary by train. Every year before my kids were born I looked into it and every year I was dismayed by the cost. It's cheaper to go to Europe than to travel by train - unless you hop a freight train. That'd be interesting.

[Leslie]

I think I need to make a Mondo Beyondo list. I've been kicking around a bucket list, but this seems more fun.

[wiblick]

I wrote my list and it appears I want to be at the centre of the Bloomsbury group of our era. Hmmm. I'll let you know if I get round to that and you can join.

[Kelly (conversemomma)]

Oh Schmutzie, I love this list. I would buy a book of your poetry. I have always wished you would publish one combined with your art. When I first came here, I used to drink in those poems of people you had met and awe over the power your fingertips held. I wish to be more like you, good, whole, giving.

[kelly]

I think I need to make a Mondo Beyondo list. Feels exciting and hopeful and marvelously speculative.

[ozma]

This is a fabulous list!!!

You can do absolutely everything on it spectacularly. I look forward to it.

[Nimble]

Exciting! I love the idea of putting down what you can barely believe in. Apparently I want to go to a warm beach.