53 things to do while I´m 53

This is not an original idea. I´ve taken it from somebody else. I´d like to give her/him the credit but I cannot remember where I read it. Not even sure if it was the exact same thing or just the gist.

I turned 53 the first week of September and I wrote down on a notebook 53 things to do while I´m 53. It took me a while and at times I really wished I were 20! but I completed the list the day before and I was ready to start living my 53 with the notebook next to me. And see where it goes.

There is no need to reproduce my whole list here. It´s like having  a birthday cake with some many candles that you need a fireman to put out the fire to make a wish instead of just having two candles, each one with a number, easy to blow and make your wish without putting your friends and house at risk let alone the poor fireman.

Number 3 on the list was “learn a new language” and I´ve just started a course to learn Chinese.  I had tried in the past but it was an intensive course and I need to learn at a slower pace, specially Chinese that it´s so different.  I decided to give it/me  a second chance while I´m 53.

Number 6 on the list was “take a photograph every day”. I didn´t mean the usual challenge “a photo a day” if not “reconnect with photography because it´s something you love and you are not doing it”.  If you do things you don´t want to do every day but you have to, such as going to work when you are not happy with it, why not having the same commitment with things you do want and make you happy?

It´s been 7 days now and I´m happy I wrote that list because it´s a cheerful reminder of all the nice and fun things I can do even if life gets complicated or hard.

September

I´ve finally sold my little house to buy my tiny apartment.

I needed the change for many reasons, the main one being I was worn out after almost three years of trying and trying even harder to make my little house home. There is a point you have to bow before the evidence: it´s not working.

I did.  Bow before the evidence.  I didn´t want to feel I was the walking version of the definition of insanity. You know, doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result?

I said goodbye to contractors, goodbye to worries every time it rained or when I heard a noise coming from the rooftop, or when hailstones hit on the glass roof and I knew it was left unprotected. That sort of things.

Now I just enjoy the urban landscape from my balcony without thinking that some poor job may hurt me or others.

I have a lot to do in here but as it´s small I don´t care much.