30 before 30: No. #14 – Get a tattoo

The list so far…

1. Learn to ride a motorbike
2. Go skydiving
3. Learn how to ski/surf
4. Eat a vegetable that you’ve grown from seed
5. Deadlift 100kg
6. Pay for a stranger’s meal
7. Swim Boscombe to Bournemouth pier
8. Learn how to play poker
9. Do the splits
10. Have visited 30 countries
11. Cycle London to Brighton
12. Go to the opera
13. Read the bible entirely
14. Get a tattoo
15. Sleep under the stars
16. Repair a bike puncture
17. Go to a life drawing class
18. Engage in a clinical trial
19. Go to Shakespeare’s Globe
20. Go to an outdoor screening of a film
21. Sell a piece of artwork you’ve created 
22. Carve a pumpkin
23. Do a pull-up 
24. Go stand-up paddle boarding
25. Climb the three peaks
26. Write and record a song
27. Learn to play chess
28. Visit someone in prison
29. Read a famous trilogy 
30. Become a doctor

I have long wanted to get a tattoo and when recently asking a friend if she had any advice about getting one she said ‘sit with the idea for a year’ which I think is pretty sound advice. I actually had sat with this idea for a decade so I think i’m alright with it being on my body for life.

So why the anchor? Well it comes from one of my most favourite bible verses, which is:

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

Hebrews 6:19

The last few years have been very tumultuous for me in many ways. I’ve had faith, walked away from it, and come right back around. I’ve made some decisions that weren’t very good for me and learnt some important lessons in the process. But, through the midst of it all, through the storms of life, I’ve had this hope that has been like an anchor for my soul; firm and secure.