Where to begin. This post began with a man. He volunteers doing hours at my work. The day was like any other, when he came in to ask a favor. He needed some flexibility with his hours so he could keep a friend company. This was not a problem, he could go and come back as he needed, but he lingered there. So I asked about this friend. He told me this man had just been given less than 6 months to live. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with him, and the man wanted to get things ready for Christmas, knowing that it would be the last one he spent on this earth. As this man described, his friend knew he was living on borrowed time. This got me thinking about what I would do which such heart breaking news. How would I evaluate my time on this planet? Would I curse the heavens, bargain for more, accept the time I had left and do anything and everything, be reckless and selfish? Or perhaps all of the above? I have heard of people's bucket lists. The things they want to do before they die. I have also heard about that fad falling to the wayside and being left undone. I have never really written a bucket list, but after giving it some thought I wanted to put out there what came to mind. At least the things I am willing to share with the world. Some things are goals, hopes, opporuntities. Some I have complete control over, others may be a combination of myself as well as those around me, but here are a few:
1. Change someone's life for the better. And when I put this I mean to really know that my time here was not a waste. That my life as insignificant and small as it may be in the grand scheme of things, meant or contributed something.
2. Write a book (I have no idea about what or why, but knowing how others writings have changed how I view the world, I would like to contribute to a new perspective)
3. Go to the Vatican (I am working on this one in 2011, so if all goes as planned I can mark one off the list)
4. Be financially savvy (gotta a ways to go there, but this is why it is a life long list)
5. Develop or invent something useful and market it
6. Learn another language, and become fluent in that language.
Now here comes the interactive part of this post. I have found that sometimes I learn the most from others. I have questions or problems and they are addressed by something another person has said, written, questioned, etc. Many of you reading this I may know personally. Some may have stumbled across this randomly and decided to let curiosity take over. But to whoever took the time to read this short post, I would love to know what others have in mind for their lives. While I thought about this man, with such a short amount of time left, it allowed me a chance to evaluate my life and where I may go. Now this list may change if I knew my time was short. It would probably be full of visits with family and friends, taking trips I could not afford and not working a bit. But what would yours include? Perhaps something else included here will inspire another reader or myself to push the envelope and make every second we have count. Perhaps the turtle in Kung Fu Panda had it right (who says you cannot learn from children's movies). Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery. But today is a gift, that is why they call it the present.
1. Change someone's life for the better. And when I put this I mean to really know that my time here was not a waste. That my life as insignificant and small as it may be in the grand scheme of things, meant or contributed something.
2. Write a book (I have no idea about what or why, but knowing how others writings have changed how I view the world, I would like to contribute to a new perspective)
3. Go to the Vatican (I am working on this one in 2011, so if all goes as planned I can mark one off the list)
4. Be financially savvy (gotta a ways to go there, but this is why it is a life long list)
5. Develop or invent something useful and market it
6. Learn another language, and become fluent in that language.
Now here comes the interactive part of this post. I have found that sometimes I learn the most from others. I have questions or problems and they are addressed by something another person has said, written, questioned, etc. Many of you reading this I may know personally. Some may have stumbled across this randomly and decided to let curiosity take over. But to whoever took the time to read this short post, I would love to know what others have in mind for their lives. While I thought about this man, with such a short amount of time left, it allowed me a chance to evaluate my life and where I may go. Now this list may change if I knew my time was short. It would probably be full of visits with family and friends, taking trips I could not afford and not working a bit. But what would yours include? Perhaps something else included here will inspire another reader or myself to push the envelope and make every second we have count. Perhaps the turtle in Kung Fu Panda had it right (who says you cannot learn from children's movies). Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery. But today is a gift, that is why they call it the present.
Well, yours are mostly full of introspection and world betterment. I feel bad to say that on my bucket list would be the following (this is not exhaustive).
ReplyDelete1) New Years in New York
2) Run the Boston Marathon
3) Play "La Campanella" by Liszt on the piano
4) Meet Celine (and I know this is your top one...you were just too doubtful to put it on)
5) Live at least 5 years in New York City and in Washington, DC (not at the same time, obviously)
Like I said...mine are mostly selfish while yours are more for world/individual betterment. Kudos to you :)