I’ve just crossed a few things off my bucket list, one of which was to actually watch the movie, The Bucket List. I watched it on the plane coming home from Hawaii.

A Hawaiian vacation has been on my husband’s and my bucket list for a long time, and we finally planned and booked it this year. So that was the major item we just crossed off our list.

Our top priority in Hawaii was visiting Pearl Harbor and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. It feels irreverent to refer to that as crossing something off our bucket list, because it was such a somber and powerful experience. As a Ranger told us before we boarded the boat that took us to the Memorial, “This is not an ‘attraction.’ It is a national cemetery, and while you’re there, you should act no differently than you would if you were at Arlington National Cemetery.”

We were with a tour group throughout our vacation, so we saw and did and learned a lot more than if we had just gone on our own. I mentioned several times during the week that I was crossing things off my bucket list that weren’t even on my bucket list. Things I’d never done before, but had never really given any thought to – like attending a luau and tasting poi. Going to a hula-dancing class. Watching an active volcano shoot steam up into the air. Touring the botanical garden where parts of Jurassic Park were filmed. And having our picture taken in front of the statue of King Kamehameha – the one we always saw during the opening credits of Hawaii Five-O.

I suppose I should confess that I’ve never actually written down an official bucket list. Rather than a list of things I want to do before I die – which is what Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman did in the movie – I’ve simply made a mental list of things I want to accomplish or places I’d like to visit someday.

What I’ve come to realize, however, is that there are fewer and fewer “somedays” in my life. Not that I have any time limits based on a terminal disease or condition, as the main characters in the movie did. But the older I get, the more I realize that a day will come when I’m not able to do the things I dream of, whether it’s due to physical limitations, financial constraints, or any other reason.

So it’s time to do some serious thinking about what I really want to accomplish with the rest of my life, and to write down on an actual list – not a mental “someday” one – the things I want to do, the places I want to go, and the goals I want to accomplish. And then get busy doing them.

October 25, 2023
©Betty Liedtke, 2023

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