Where Do You See Yourself in Ten Years?

In taking up Dee's challenge over at Crab Chronicles, and having more than my share or time on my hands, I am thinking about where I was 10 years ago and where I hope to be 10 years from now!

In January 2000 I was in Colorado only a few years, it was all still so new and wondrous to me! It still is...I really found my home there. I was selfish, self-centered and negative. I was still childless but working on it. I was working full-time at an insurance agency and weekends and after hours with Dominick at the restaurant. I was somewhat thinner, but not at all "thin". I didn't have the wrinkles and saggy skin I have now, I didn't need reading glasses that I can't ever find, and I was still digging country music and listening all the time to the radio. I was driving a cute little used Subary Legacy or maybe the white minivan we still have, I can't remember when we bought it prior to Matt's arrival. I was not going to church but was still a believer in God. My house was usually very clean, I had not yet been introduced to Caillou or been forced to watch a Roly Poly Olie marathon yet. I had linoleum and carpet rather than Pergo and tile. I had almost none of the friends I have today, although a few I had met.

In the next 10 years I hope I am still here! I want to see our kids thriving and well on their way to adulthood or close to it. I want to live in the same house. I want my mom to still be here. I want to be a few years into ministry work of some sort. I want to be learning, growing and reading. I want World Peace...OK...that one is the longest shot. I want to be snuggled next to Dominick every single night. I want all my friends to still be an intimate part of my life. I want to feel wise. I want to see God connected in everything I do. I want to have traveled the US a little. I want to still feel relevant and "techie". I want to have done lots of things that mattered, even if only to one person. I want to always feel loved and to give love. I want to not be wearing bifocals (slim chance on that one!), a bridge, a pacemaker or a coffin. I want to have a few gray hairs. I want to worry less about what others think of me. I want to still see the world as a beautiful place. I want to be close to each of my children. I want the world to be kinder and gentler. I want Montrose to be the same size or only a little larger. I want to be driving something other than a minivan...maybe. I want to be better at taking risks and seeing what is truly important. I want to worry less (I am actually improving on this one!).

Rereading this, it seems there are a lot of things I am hoping remain the same...and some that I hope are even better than they are now! Here is what I DON'T want to see in general in the next 10 years:

I don't want to see TV develop even worse content. I don't want to see everyone withdraw into their own world with even more isolating tech products. I don't want to see our only interaction be on Facebook. I don't want to see more countries taking up arms against one another. I don't want our children to be jaded or mature before their time...any of our children, yours or mine. I don't want to see people sick and not getting health care because they can't afford it. I don't want God relegated to the back burner. I don't want poodle skirts or mullets to come back in vogue, but I have a secret yearning for parachute pants and leather bomber jackets to return.

What will the next decade bring? Who knows! I am sure a little of what we don't want, and a little of what we do. But I doubt I will spend too much time worrying about it, I will be too busy living it.