MY BUCKET LIST

My adventure to Yellowstone started all because of my Bucket List - you know, that list you have on paper or in your head of all the things you would like to accomplish before you die. There’s a movie about it starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.  Not that this movie, which I love, is exactly how I think people should use their Bucket Lists, but it’s a starting place to think about your own Bucket List and when you want to start clicking items off. 

Living in a National Park has been on my Bucket List since I learned that non-Ranger people actually can live in a National Park. I turned 60 this year. Somehow that’s a big milestone. When you are 50 it’s conceivable you just might make it to 100 but 60? Pretty much surely you have lived the better part of your life.  It’s time to get cracking. And now I’m living in Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park. Done.

I don’t happen to keep my Bucket List on paper although I learned last night that my son Dan does - well he does the modern version and keeps it on his iPhone.  His Bucket List has some of the same things on it that mine had when I was his age – climb all the highest mountains on the seven continents, backpack Alaska, visit Africa. It also has some things I never wanted to do like bungee and base jump. He is my son, not my duplicate after all.

My Bucket List when I was my son’s age was also filled with physically challenging activities that I have now done or don’t plan to do. Life has a way of changing your priorities. I no longer need to see the highest mountains in all seven continents; I’ve learned I’m not a peak-bagger. I’m now content with visiting the seven continents, period. I still need to visit South America, Antarctica and Africa for that one.

As we get older, our experience widens and we keep ‘becoming’. So as I’ve clicked off the years, I’ve added a few items as well as removed some. My List now includes going to an Ashram for a retreat. I’m not even sure I knew what an Ashram was when I was Dan’s age. I didn’t start my yoga practice until I was in my 30s and I’m still working on the meditation part. My monkey mind, you know.

Dan and my lists are similar in that some of the items are completely in our control and others require the cooperation of others. Visiting Alaska for example is in our control. We just have to decide it will happen, get our plans together and go.  On the other hand, one of the highest items on my current Bucket List is to hold my first grandchild. Obviously, I need a little cooperation from Dan and his life partner for that one.

For me, my Bucket List is an important and very real part of my life. I hold to the promise that you are never too old to dream, never too old to add something that sometimes feels impossible but is so only in the mind. In a way, a Bucket List, no matter what your current age, is about who you want to become. It is highly likely you will be influenced by your Bucket List items as you go through life (successfully backpacking the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim in my 30s has led to many, many other adventures for me). At the very least, your Bucket List gives you a reason to stay healthy and look forward to crossing off your items.

My List is a set of highway signs for my life, a way of measuring where I am today as opposed to yesterday. Can I STILL backpack Denali? I’m pretty sure I can even at 60 years old. Can I STILL dive the Great Barrier Reef? Probably but maybe not so deep. If diving bothers my ears, I'll snorkel instead. The main point of my Bucket List is to answer the question: Am I living my life in a way that is consistent with my dreams? My Bucket List? It’s a way of being honest with myself in a fun way, a way that allows me an out if something is no longer interesting or feasible but gives me plenty of room for challenge and growth.

In the end, an honest yet flexible Bucket List gives even us reasonable, responsible people an out. So what if it’s a little crazy! It’s on the List. My List helps direct me down pathways so that in the end, when I am taking my last breath, when I am ready to accomplish the very last item on my Bucket List, I can say “I’ve lived a full and fulfilling life and I’m now ready for that last next big adventure.”