Vision Quest

Oh I love my friend Mary. I have written here about her before. She is presently recovering from another surgery - her "takedown" surgery. I am thinking of her and holding her close. And in honor of her I made my usual sojourn to her blog Papergirl. I went back to read about her Art/Lifeproject. For a year she is embarking on a plan to do a series of things every month. Eat one particular food, wear one color - only, listen to only one kind of artist, read only one author, explore only one filmmaker, exclude one food. She is focused and tenacious that Mary. And she has inspired me. She is turning 30 and I am turning 38. I am also beginning graduate school (which will end around my 40th birthday) and hopefully preparing to move my family to a new home and a new set of possibilities.

I want to support Mary and honestly, I think her idea is beautiful and amazing. While my interest is not in melding art and life together it is in opening myself to health and spirit. So, the criteria will be different. My goals are different. I plan to post here about these changes - there are so many. Now, I can hear a lot of you saying: why are you putting more things on your plate? Ultimately I think I am taking more things off my plate. Removing temptations and habits and helping me focus on my own health and personal enlightenment. Mary had a very exhaustive list of what she wanted to do and the things which fell into each category. Mine is much smaller. Mostly I am planning to focus on my physical health, my food intake and my spiritual awareness. I would love to add things like reading only one author for the entire month - but I don't think I will have the additional time to read while working and going to school. I am going to list the categories and I would love it if you all added your suggestions.
Physical Activity - to be done every day for 30 days
Eliminate One Food
Add One New Healthy Food Habit
Reading at least one thing about a different religion or spiritual tradition - the religion remains the same for the entire 30 days - every day for 30 days (can be as brief as a wikipedia entry)
Incorporating a healing technique from the tradition of the month
And my favorite: listening to only one musician for the entire month (this is going to kill my kids!)

So please send your suggestions. Suggest artists, foods, physical activities, send questions. Get involved. I look forward to hearing from you.
This year of vision questing begins August 1st - the day after my 38th birthday!