Do you have a bucket list, or if you have never carried a bucket, do you have a backpack list, of places to go and things to see or accomplish?
To “kick the bucket” is an old saying meaning to die and the “bucket list” is the list of things we wish to accomplish before we do.
As opposed to our “to do” lists that push us to complete, often mundane but necessary tasks, on a time urgent basis, our “bucket” list pulls us toward experiences which we have identified as meaningful to a life well lived and usually has no specific time urgency. The completion of the bucket list, if we ever formally complete one, can be anytime over what we hope is a long lifetime. Usually we just mention in passing that we are going to add a destination or accomplishment to the bucket list, that in reality, we have never completed.
Over the last few years we have been counseled to live in the present, wherein momentary flashes of beauty, kindness, and lessons to be learned, would otherwise be overlooked. But in all things, we need balance. If we do not look to our future and lay down the foundational steps necessary for a full and meaningful life, we may miss the mark too late identified, for lack of planning and the sometimes-needed sacrifice, to achieve the things we feel are most important.
If sitting down to make a list sounds daunting, here is an idea given to me by a sage friend:
Have your future self write a letter to you now thanking you for your reflection on what is important and the plans you put into place now that have allowed those meaningful events happen in the future.
After you draft the letter from your future self, if you would like to share it, please email a copy to me.
Here are some of the things that I came up with as a result of the letter of appreciation my future self wrote to me.
My bucket list, which is immense, includes:
- To strive to set a world record for the number of friends I make in the coming years.
- To adopt a life plan which includes, at a minimum, further development as a world traveler (to visit all the friends I will make from among you readers), an adventurer, a disaster volunteer, an athlete, an Elder role model.
- To develop my farm as a place of learning (a place where instructors could teach bee, chicken, and worm husbandry, meditation skills, how to weld, or how to can vegetables, philosophy and more).
- To launch the first of what will hopefully be many regional chapters of the Guild of Elders whose charge will be the reintegration of individuals across our life stages to recapture our basic human need of cross generational connection. I also want to launch the Egalitarian Contemplators as a think tank of upstream great ideas to benefit earth, people and animals, with the ideas well-reasoned so as not to not have downstream ill effects on any of the above.
- To get a “rescue elephant”—which I might add is being opposed by a certain adult male member of my immediate family. Maybe I’ll just join the wonderful organizations that are working to save these majestic creatures.
- To see every episode of Science Channel, Discovery, History and National Geographic Nature and read every Mother Earth News magazine article that has to do with the best interests of the earth and its inhabitants gathering ideas for myself and others to set into motion for the benefit of the planet.
- As I exit stage left from this life, I would like to leave my farm, which is only on loan as it has been to all its previous owners, to posterity as a legacy for all to enjoy.
- I would like the words on my tombstone to be read as one of the following statements – “She was a human-on-fire with curiosity,” or “Darn it! Despite all the items she had checked off her bucket list, she still had a few more to add.”
Whether a vague idea or a real list stored in your bucket or backpack, what is on your inventory of accomplishments, places to visit, people to meet, or adventures to have, which you will regret if you leave this life not having completed?
Nothing happens unless first a dream – Carl Sandberg
