Bucket List

[talon]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/04/06/bucket.list.buried.life/index.html?hpt=C2

I've never had what my sister calls a "bucket list" (and thanks to this article, I now know where she got the term) because I tend to live "in the moment" and often impulsively. If there's something I want to do, I'll make the time to do it or find a way to do it when I'm doing other things. Sometimes, the patterns fall out so that it just seems the most natural thing to be able to do exactly what I wanted to do.

Take my son's wedding, for example. I had to go to his wedding anyway, so why not spend an extra day on the road to do things like see the Pacific Ocean, or see a Sequoyah tree up close and personal, or see the Petrified Forest (that wasn't something I actually expected to do, but the opportunity presented itself in the form of a road construction detour, so I did it), or see Mount Shasta, or a number of other things?

When my daughter had to go to Boston, why not take the time to visit friends along the route and see the Atlantic Ocean up close and personal and eat a lobster roll and visit some museums and drive through more mountain ranges and so on?

Life presents so many opportunities to do things that I ceased to make plans and simply went with the flow. That way, I've been able to do and see and participate in so many things I never would have put on any "bucket list".

I think I would get stressed out if I had a "bucket list", so worried about doing everything on it that I'd forget to enjoy them, so busy checking things off that there wouldn't be time to do the fortuitous and unexpected.

What I have are short term "to do " lists (pulling up the carpet in the house, repainting, garden plans, local festivals...) and general "that sounds good" ideas. I know I did a "70 Things to Do Before I Turn 70" list, but I don't look at it very often. I'm sure I've already done a lot of things on it and that there are some things I've decided I don't want to do after all. I'm not going to go back and modify it. When I'm 70 (in 6 years), I'll look at it and see what I missed, if anything, and add all the extras I got to do (like the Petrified Forest).

I guess I'm a Type C person (is there a Type C - all anyone ever talks about are the Type A people) - go with the flow, be open to whatever happens when it happens, live in the moment, with minimal planning.

I do plan, but I plan for the things I know will happen: groceries, house maintenance and remodeling, disasters, retirement, death, accident care, chores, Things that Must be Done, that sort of thing. Those are all minutely planned and updated as needed. It's all the other stuff: road trips, vacation sites, events, experiences, and such, that I leave to chance and happenstance.

So that's why I don't, and probably never will, have a "bucket list".

Your life is different. Maybe you'd enjoy having a bucket list.