A WOMAN’s VIEW

Have you ever thought about making a “bucket list?”
Are there secret dreams or hopes that you have stifled or given up ever achieving? Do you have a passionate interest in something that has of yet been pushed to “someday?”
I hope that we have dreams, hopes and goals that we have not yet achieved. But many of us are running in so many directions that we don’t take the time to consider even one option.
Is this you?
The movie, “The Bucket List,” released in 2007, starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The two were portrayed as two elderly, terminally ill men who escaped from a cancer treatment hospital to head off on a road trip to fulfill a list of “to-dos” before they die.
The film was a heart-warming and message friendly story.
This “bucket list” idea took off like wildfire in this country. Eventually, the “bucket list” concept transitioned from applying just to the aged to being pertinent to all ages.
Having said all of this, I now find that creating a “bucket list” takes a great deal of time and thought. It doesn’t happen during the rush of our daily lives. Maybe sometimes a desire can fall on one during mind crowding moments. But, recognized and verbalized thoughts and hopes take time to travel from the heart to the head, and then out the mouth.
Young couples have dreams that are easy to list. A home of their own, a family vacation to Disney World, a nice car, or a good job are only a few of their goals and dreams.
Then there are hopes such as healing, restoration of marriages, world peace. But these are not what I am referring to at this time. These are prayerful and deep needs..
No, a “bucket list” is a compilation of those things you want to see, hear, touch, taste before your last days on earth.
Are you dead yet? Are you in the grave? Then, you might want to consider that there TRULY are a number of things you would like to do.
Amazon sells a “Bucket List Journal” that offers to motivate and lead some of us totally empty headed, dull souls who do not know where to begin. I tend to be content and totally “que sera, sera,” but that’s not always an interesting approach to life, now is it?
Here are some of the leading items on Bucket Lists. Maybe now, you can get started and use a few of these suggestions? I did not list them all here.
Please don’t let my witty comments discourage you.
Go for it!
• Take a road trip. (mmm. That’s a no-brainer. But where?)
• Hike down Grand Canyon. (I will need a back pack filled with chocolates for that one)
• Go parachute jumping (Nah. I would die just standing there looking out the plane door)
• Go to Antarctica (Do you suppose they have a Starbucks there?)
• Celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans. (After about five minutes of that, I would probably say, “enough” )
• Save a life (Most of us already have done that! Our children, for one thing!)
• Stand in a prison cell in Alcatraz. (I have done that. It’s pretty stark)
• Visit Berlin, explore Iceland, visit Croatia, visit Rome,
• Pet a Penguin (Do they bite?)
• Fly first class. (My children do that. We go coach!)
• Visit Argentina’s Iguazu Falls (Again, plenty of chocolate bars in my back pack)
• Climb Mt. Kilmanjaro (pant, pant)
• Stay in an ice hotel in Sweden. (Can you bring your electric blanket?)
• Learn how to ride a bike. (And attach a basket for your chocolate)
• Kayak through caves. ( not in Anarctica, I hope)
Am I hopeless or what?
Anyone can lose his way and find that he has lost tomorrow because of the burdens of today. So let’s start listing what we want for tomorrow!
Something wonderful happens inside when one re-thinks goals, writes them down, declares them to others, prays about them, and looks forward to tomorrow.
This is not a time to dwell on the negativity and hopelessness that seems to be permeating our society. It’s there. But this is the time to look up and look inward to find those things that still call you/us to tomorrow.
I am starting a new list today.

“A Woman’s View” is Judi Tabler’s reflection of her experiences and events. She is a wife, mother, writer, teacher, grandmother, and even a great grandmother.