Dream - dream big - they can come true!

Even before the movie "Bucket List" came out, I had one.

It wasn't a "things I have to do before I die" list, but rather a "things I want to do to celebrate where I am in life, keep my mind active and have something to look forward to" litany. My list started as a "55 at 55," became a "56 at 56" and later this year will morph into a "57 at 57." It's not a list set in stone, but rather a living, breathing "change as I change" kind of document. From the beginning, though, one of the things on the list was "Do significant work toward the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial."

Now, I knew this might be a pipe dream, and I even set it aside for a year or so, but last fall when Heartland College in Bloomington (Ill.) offered a course titled "The Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln," in celebration of the bicentennial, I signed up the day I learned of it. As time passed, I couldn't get enough of Lincoln - reading, writing, sleeping too little, savoring every morsel of the experience and the ever-expanding storehouse of knowledge.

The deeper I got into Lincoln, the more I was driven to share all the interesting and profound things I was learning. And thus, Lincoln Buff 2 blog was born - at first more a place for me to exert my creativity, share the things I'd learned, generate an interest in the sixteenth president and spread my enthusiasm for his legacy. Time continued to march forward and the blog became an obession, a commitment to disseminate information on events and - most of all - a labor of love.

I began to attend Lincoln lectures and events and made plans to cross off that item on my "56 at 56." Tomorrow afternoon, I'll do it. As I do, I'll add several more exciting items to the list. If I have not dreams, what have I?

I've been in Springfield all week, got to attend lots of events, met and visited with more than a dozen Lincoln scholars I admire, met celebrities I'd never dreamed of meeting and even was in the same room as the President of the United States of America as he joined Lincoln's birthday bash. It can't get much better than this!

I've still got events to savor yet today and tomorrow, and I can't wait to tell you about yesterday. But for now, I need to pull my reluctant fingers from the keyboard, get my act together and get to my next event.

Please help me spread the enthusiasm and keep the legacy of Lincoln alive.

Thanks for reading my blog and celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday in your own special way. Keep coming back. I've got enough to share to keep this blog alive for a very, very long time.

Ann