Things I need to do

1. paint on canvas
2. make a glorious mess and not clean up right away
3. write a book about the two years I've spent in Afghanistan
4. wake up next to a man who takes me as I am
5. learn how to love and be loved without asking so many questions
6. travel to Timor Leste to take photographs for the IFRC
7. visit Morocco
8. learn how to use photoshop
9. put together a book proposal using my photos from Afghanistan
10. send it to someone
11. put together another book proposal using my journal entries and collages about surviving Afghanistan with spirit
12. send it out into the world as well
13. go on a meditation and yoga retreat in india
14. work for myself, in my pyjamas
15. have an exhibition of my photos
16. bring the exhibition back to the women who are in the photos
17. go hiking in Tibet
18. sit to meditate in quiet Tibetan places
19. live in Paris or at least stay long enough to have a regular cafe and folks in the market who know me
20. spend a summer working underwater (saving turtles? scuba guiding? anything goes)
21. do an immersion Maori language course
22. volunteer at a kohanga reo (language nest) for a summer
23. take my godsons camping in the New Zealand bush
24. take my nephews camping on a New Zealand beach
25. take my neices on an overseas trip to a country where girls live very differently
26. get certified to teach yoga
27. teach yoga
28. collaborate on a development/humanitarian/creative project with Amanda Scothern
29. collaborate on a creative project about Gaza with Imogen and Amanda
30. spend some time just taking photographs and writing
31. be a mother
32. study psychology
33. become a trained peer counsellor for humanitarian workers
34. study about art therapy
35. go back to Gaza and work with the Gaza Community Mental Health Project for a summer
36. find some old friends, like Ross Georgeson
37. collaborate on an art therapy project with Ross
38. slow down for a summer and camp by the beach
39. live with Grandma for a while, just hanging out, going for gentle walks
40. spend sometime in Auckland, near to my family
41. be around to babysit my godsons
42. collaborate on a documentary with Reina
43. work with Marc to record his story
44. put together a book proposal with Marc
45. take portrait photos of my Afghan colleagues and their familiies, print them and give them as gifts
46. work with F on a report about women in Western Afghanistan
47. take dance classes again
48. use my photographs of Afghanistan to raise awareness of and support for the things that are working here
49. meet three bloggers who constantly inspire me
50. promote my photoblog and use it to generate momentum for my other photo projects
51. complete The Artist's Way
52. get my own website
53. use the website to bring together creative women with great humanitarian projects
54. use the website to share and promote my photographs
55. use the website to promote my book(s)
56. use the website to connect these different threads of my life: humanitarian work, photography, music, art, spirituality, physical well-being
57. go on a weekend getaway with Viv - hiking and camping and drinking red wine
58. go on a weekend getaway with Reina - drink pink champagne and lie in an open air bath while planning our documentary together
59. go on a yoga retreat and or surf camp with Mel
60. go on an art retreat with Wendie - get messy together
61. get messy in my SWH journal
62. put together a book for teen girls about being crazy and brave enough to make a difference
63. start running long-distance again - this time slowly and just for fun
64. pay off the mortgage on my little cottage
65. help F find a way to get out of Afghanistan
66. help F get into a university outside of Afghanistan
67. go back and visit Bassam and Donya in Gaza
68. record my experience of going back to Gaza (writing, photographs, film) and share the story
69. keep letting go
70. swim with a whale shark
71. dive with a manta ray
72. walk one of the great walks of New Zealand
73. learn to snow board
74. learn to surf
75. climb another mountain
76. go on a retreat at the Shambala Centre in Colorado
77. meet Pema Chodron at a retreat a the Shambala centre in Colorado
78. visit Alaska
79. visit Antarctica
80. visit Russia and Mongolia
81. take a great train journey
82. tour Australia properly, visit the outback, the far north