Bucket List

Last weekend Jim and I were talking about our bucket list. If you saw the movie, Bucket List, you know it is about two guys that met in a hospital as they both suffered from terminal illnesses. They had a list of things they wanted to check off their 'to do list' before they died. They had enough time to do quite a few of them with their time left and they did most of them together.

Several years ago Jim and took a class at Education Week at BYU about marriage in the "mature years." One of the things the professor said was that you should run out of life before you run out of plans. That really resonated with us as we had just watched his grandparents, sell their home and possessions and move from our town into a fancy retirement home in San Francisco. They were just weary of the work of keeping up their large home and wanted to enjoy San Francisco as they had as a young married couple. They gave up some of their most reinforcing life activities; gardening and cooking and entertaining. They were excellent at all of these. We all worried about their decision.

Is yours empty?

Both of them were in relatively good health and off they went. So at the retirement home they did not have to cook or clean or garden or do laundry or worry about anything but paying their monthly fees. Well, apparently God wasn't finished with them yet, and they soon realized they hated the place and they needed their life back.

They came back to our town, rented an apartment, bought all new furniture, and lived at least another 15 years or so. We have to have purpose and meaning in our lives or what is the point of getting up in the morning? We admired their ability to learn from their mistake, to come home and begin again. And we were so happy to have them back again!

The point is we all need to have plans, dreams and aspirations all of our lives and hopefully there should be some things left over still undone when we die. Not the other way around. It was suggested in our class that you should have a list of at least 100 things you want to do someday and keep adding to it.

So do you have a Bucket List? What is on it?
Here a few of the things on mine.

Fill your big bucket to the top!

1. Go to the New England states in the fall
of the year to enjoy autumn there with Jim.

2. Go to the southern seaboard states, especially the Carolinas to
visit some of the places I have read about like Savannah, Charleston, etc.
(All with Jim of course)

3. Take a car trip with Jim to Canada and return to Victoria one day.

4. Go to Austria~the birth place of many of the major composers. We
would also like to have at least one opportunity to fly Business Class
to Europe and not be so cramped in flight.

5. See the Palace of Versailles.

6. Live nearer to kids and grandkids.
We want to participate in their lives,
watch them grow up and make good choices and
be a help to them in anyway we can.
We want to see their children born too!

7. Read my mile long list of books,
keep improving my computer skills
and become a good photographer,
maybe even publish a book!

8. Continually learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and serve a full-time mission with Jim, maybe more than one.

9. See a Michael Ball Concert in England.
(Jim doesn't have to go if he doesn't want to!!
He will though, as he is a closet fan himself)

10. Work on being balanced, healthy, and
spiritually and mentally alert by keeping active.

I like the old saying that goes like this~
Fail to Plan~Plan to Fail.

Are you adding to your bucket list, staying interested in a variety of things that you want to do in your life time? I hope so! Chances are you will live longer and for sure you will be happier!

Never run out of plans before you run out of life!