For the word nerds out there, there’s no explanation needed, but for the math geeks, future perfect tense refers to something that will have been completed at some point in the future.

I will have lived a lifetime when I take my last breath.

There’s really nothing profound about that statement, since a life can span any length of time at all, and every lifetime ends with a last breath. The question is, how will I fill up the time that comes before that last breath? How will I squeeze every bit of joy from the time God gives me on this earth, not wasting a bit of it, however long that is?

Recently I became aware of a new YouTube channel called The Journal Worthy Day. Created by Ben and Brittney Nelson, the channel is their effort to encourage us all to live “journal worthy” days. Along with their four adorable munchkins, they are striving to make sure each day is memorable — whether it’s something as adventurous as traveling to Rome, Italy, or playing in the backyard on a beautiful spring day. Their videos are enjoyable and inspiring, and I’m looking forward to the next one!

I’m not very video savvy, so you probably won’t see me starting a YouTube channel any time soon. However, I do enjoy words and photographs, and I’m wondering how many journals, scrapbooks, and blog posts I can create of “journal worthy” experiences? People often refer to “bucket lists” of things they want to do while on this earth. Often these things are crazy adventurous, like climbing Mount Everest, or free diving for pearls in the Sea of Japan. These things are certainly journal worthy, but a little adventurous for me. So here are some “journal worthy” things in no certain order that I would like to accomplish on my journey to the “future perfect” —

• travel to West Texas to photograph the moon and stars at night
• create a scrapbook, or maybe a blog, composed of photographs of the knick knacks I’ve collected over the years, along with the stories behind them — I’ll then pass the knick knacks along to someone else to enjoy
• become more involved in a church fellowship, once we find our new church home
• drive up Highway 288 to photograph the Eclectic Menagerie along the left side of the road just before reaching the 610 Loop
• finish the lap quilt I started for my sister probably more than a decade ago
• tackle a crazy two week long, 3,700 mile road trip with my husband this summer
• try new things with my camera and share the results
• go on a photowalk in downtown Houston
• finish my novel, blogging about the experience as I go
• see the major Frank Lloyd Wright homes:
  • Fallingwater (Mill Run, Pennsylvania) √ October 2015
  • The Rosenbaum House (Florence, Alabama) TBD Summer 2017
  • Taliesin (Spring Green, Wisconsin) ?
  • Taliesin West (Scottsdale, Arizona) ?
  • The Robie House (Chicago, Illinois) ?

I expect that’s a decent list to start with. And certainly journal worthy. 

What will you do that’s journal worthy?