By B. Lynn Goodwin.
I never saw Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List, but I know the movie inspired people around the world to make their own lists. In case you’ve never heard of such a thing, a bucket list is a list of goals, dreams, ambitions, and the experiences you’d like to have before you die.
It can include countries and people you want to visit, events you want to see, and sports, hobbies, and activities you’d like to try sometime.
Whether you want to run a marathon, learn a foreign language, see the Aurora Borealis, cure cancer, end illiteracy, start your own business, finish college, fly a plane, swim with the dolphins, sail around the world, or tell your family you love them, put it on your list. Writing it down is the first step towards making it happen.
My husband is always saying that we’re going to have fun when we start traveling. He forgets that we’re already traveling on weekends. It’s like we’re going through a bucket list we didn’t even know we had.
Here are just a few of the things we’ve done this spring and summer:
- Traveled to Texas so I could present a workshop at a conference while he visited his father
- Camped on the Russian River
- Visited the Sonoma County Fair where I rode a Ferris wheel for the first time
- Visited Hearst Castle
- Visited Carmel
- Saw all kinds of movies including Hope Springs, Spiderman, The Dark Knight, Bernie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and so many other movies that I can’t come up with all the titles
- Rode the Skunk Train from Willits to Fort Bragg and spent the night before coming back
- Visited Marine World and rode Medusa, which was a “challenging” introduction to roller coasters
- Saw the Sonoma County Air Show
I decided to make a real bucket list, not of things we’d already done, but of things I’d like to do.
- Visit the Great Lakes
- Visit the Catskills
- Figure out whether or not to write the memoir about Richard and me
- Expand and polish the YA, currently called Talent
- Send it into the world
- Polish and publish the stories that are so close to being ready
- Get the sofa reupholstered
- Clear space so there’s room for more to come in
After I started my list, I asked my husband what he’d put on a bucket list. He added:
- Visit Florida
- Visit Bahamas
- Visit Hawaii while it’s $169 each way
- Go to Italy and ride the gondolas in Venice
- Go to all Thousand Trails (RV camp ground) in America
- Go to Victoria Island
- See Napa Valley from a hot air balloon
- Parasail
- Camp on any beach that stretches into the Pacific Ocean
- Fly a glider
- Parachute out of an airplane
- Get a pilot’s license and be able to fly small planes
- Become debt free
We reserve the right to add, delete, modify, and enhance these lists at any time. After all, you can’t change your plans until you identify them.
Inspire yourself: make a bucket list today!
How might a bucket list inspire you? What can you tell about us by reading our lists?
Photo Credit: Curt Fleenor
Looking at this here, I see how many lists I’ve got. Wouldn’t you know I’m not working on any of those things right now? What’s on your bucket list and what are you doing instead?
He likes adventure, new and unique places and the freedom of flying. You are more grounded and love nature, domesticity and adventures turned inward.
Richard says, “She got us pegged pretty good.” I’m capturing his southern speech exactly as I hear it. It wonderful to see us through someone else’s eyes. Thanks, Bonnie.