Bucket
List. This is an idea right up my street;
it involves lists and dreams all in the same package, what’s not to love? Immediately the (great) film came out and
Bucket List hit the world I was on it. I
made a list, actually I made several, abandoned some, changed ideas and very
gradually whittled down my expectations.
Off came ‘Have dinner with Djimon Hounsou’ and on went slightly more realistic
goals such as ‘See a whale, live and free’.
It began to occur to me that a good Bucket List should have achievable
goals in order to be a successful and true to life list. It’s all very well putting on ‘be a
millionaire, buy a castle, ride in the Grand National’ if you are well on your
way to already achieving those things. If
you have a goal that is, somehow to make yourself ‘happy’ then why place that
goal out of reach? My list today
contains wonderful things I’m aiming for – Have Tea at The Ritz, Send a message
in a bottle, attend a festival, travel somewhere amazing on a train………. All these and more are within a possibility,
making the list real.
I
think my list should grow and become organic with my day, I should include things
like visit family more, write more, tidy more, exercise more, eat less
chocolate.
Today
I read the article from Helen Fawkes, a lady who has thrown herself into a Life
List following the discovery of cancer. It’s
an interesting article, much positivity and Helens blog makes interesting reading
too. Why do we make these lists faced
with a certain death? Death is surely certain
to us all, the only difference between Helen and I is that she has a more
defined date than I do. It is, as she
says, more of a no-regret way of living, do what you can, as much as you can as
soon as you can. I am a great believer
and preacher of this way of thinking, I push my children to be the best of
themselves every day, not to achieve grandeur and wealth (although……) but to
attain peace and happiness. I am a great
believer and a most useless follower. I
do not do this in my own life, I am, it seems a huge fan of the excuse – the why
I can’t in life. I shall be standing in
Heaven saying ‘oh I didn’t know my time was running out’ with some
surprise. I know it. I am not sure how brave I am. Hey…….. here’s a thought, maybe I should NOT
have only achievable things on my list, maybe I should have seemingly unachievable
things in order to push myself. How
crazy a thought is that!
I read
yesterday that about a woman who said she had dealt with everything that life
had thrown at her (and much had been thrown) by each day writing down three
things that made her happy. I am going
to copy that. Today my three things are
a) I
have a family, mixed and mayhem at times, love and laughter at others, but it’s
a good thing to have
b)
when I work I am surrounded by desks, computers, buildings, shops, cars, more
computers, busy busy world; but just outside my window there is a great tree
and it shares the seasons with me, I look at it often
c) I
brought in my own lunch and so do not have to buy lunch
I also
read about George Price, the gentleman who came up with a formula to explain
altruism. The question was if we needed
to be selfish creatures to survive in evolution how come we can be altruistic. The argument, as I understand it, is that we
can be selfless if we recognise a kin, as in we will help those we understand
to be linked to ourselves and our own survival.
I’m not about to launch into a philosophical debate, nor study the biological
premise, in fact I may not even go so far as to use the word premise in my
blog. My own feeling is we have a
soul. And a soul doesn’t need an evolutionary
cause to help others. It’s a human
element, in my belief, a God placed portion.
But the point that I have leisurely meandered to is this – George Price
said he would lay down his life for two brothers or eight cousins. I would lay mine down for one. One cousin, one brother, one child, one
stranger. Not because I am willing to
leave, but because life is so very important.
All life. And should be cherished
and saved.
And
here I go again, a lecture. For it has
just occurred to me – what are the bucket lists of the homeless, the abused,
the lonely.
On my
list – do more, be more, be all that I can be this day.
