My Bucket List

   I'm not sure I ever cared for the term "Bucket List". I don't have anything against it but just the idea of having a bunch of stuff on a list that I need or want to do before I die seems morbid. Don't get me wrong, there are many things I want to do and see before the inevitable, but having a list seems to detract from the spontaneity of life. This is just my opinion and I realize that there are multiple viewpoints to every subject but this is my blog and today I feel like writing random thoughts regarding bucket lists.

  I loved the movie " The Bucket List ". Jack and Morgan were wonderful. The interaction between the two characters and the way they came to enhance each other's perspective of life was heart warming. To me, that is the real purpose of a bucket list. The list is not important but rather a means of learning what is really important in life. Jack and Morgan were polar opposites and yet the unlikely friendship took them both to a deeper place. Some people look at the waters and wonder how far. Others look at the same waters and ask how deep. Shouldn't depth be our quest. 

   My earliest memory as a child was the day a 5 year old Todd stepped off the patio to walk over to gramma'a house. About half way there a question came to me. "Who was I before I was me"? It was such a strange and simple question but I was sure I was somebody before. To a 5 year old it was some pretty heavy stuff. I am 50 years old now. It's still some pretty heavy stuff. Where would I be if I wasn't here. Someday I will find out. I realize this has nothing to do with a bucket list and yet it has everything to do with it. Why are we here? It is a question that has been asked since the dawn of time. Where are we going? I would like to ask someone who has been there. I read a book by Richard Bach. He is the same author who wrote Jonathon Livingston Seagull. In the book the main character said we are here for two reasons: To learn and to have fun. Every thing we do can fit into those two categories.  Who knows, maybe it's true.

    My bucket list changes all the time. There are constants of course but the older I get the things that once seemed important to me no longer are. These are the things on my list at this point in my life. I want to see the Seahawks win a Super Bowl. I hope that happens this year.  I want to spend more quality time with my kids and grand kids. I want to walk my daughters down the aisle. I want to dance at my grand children's weddings. I want to lay wrapped up in a blanket with Mandy and watch the aurora borialis dance across the northern sky. I want to sit on a hillside as two bull elk battle for dominance of the herd. I want to witness the fury of nature riding out a hurricane.  I want to halibut fish in Alaska and reel in a big one. I want to go moose hunting. I want to spend a little more time with Mandy on the white sand beaches of someplace beautiful. I would love to snowmobile through Yellowstone National Park and spend Christmas there in a cabin with my entire family. I want to bag a trophy elk. I want to write a book that people actually read. I want to tryout for The Voice and have Blake Shelton turn his chair around. There is so much talent on that show that winning it would be a terrible bet but just to have the opportunity to compete would be amazing. I want to retire and live many years beyond retirement enjoying the life that 35 years of labor provided. I want to see the day we are debt free. I want to leave something good behind for my family. I want to love deeper than I ever have and then love deeper yet. 

    This is my bucket list. These and many others are the things that are important to me today. Some will change but some will not. I am certain to add things to my list. As I re-read this post I must ask the question. Why is it that we wait until we are terminally ill before we cling to the idea of a bucket list. I wish we could grasp the concept prior to something bad happening. Maybe we need to have a living list and go for it every day. Maybe we all should live like we were dying. Wouldn't the world be an amazing place. This author believes it would be. What are your thoughts? 

     Todd