Bucket List

I've been thinking lately of writing a sort of "Bucket List." You know the premise, right? For anyone who doesn't, the name is comes from a movie of that name, where two guys who have cancer have a list of things to do before they "kick the bucket."

I figured I would start early. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, but I think it may take me a good bit of time to complete my list. Also, some of the things will be easier to accomplish earlier in my life, rather than later. I am not one of those women who won't tell my age. I suffer from no illusions about it--I am not yet old, but I am old enough to have felt the touch of mortality. In a little over two years, I will see forty. I neither look nor act like a woman almost forty years old, generally. Most people say they don't believe my age. Physically, I can believe I am getting older. For example, it is considerably more difficult now for me to get into shape (something I started working on again lately!) than when I was in my twenties.

Okay, that was a bit of an aside, but on with my list. I am sure it is not complete, but here is a good start:

 1.  Hike the entire Appalachian Trail. This is a big one, not easily accomplished. However, I have been imagining myself doing so since I was maybe 14 years old, so it definitely belongs at the top of the list. I don't think about it all the time, but I have definitely had it on the back burner of my mind for years.

 2.  See the Pacific Ocean. I was born about 50 miles inland from the Atlantic, and thus, I saw its shores many times. While I have made my way since then to Colorado, I have yet to go much further west. I actually did make it to Arizona for the first time last month. Which brings me to the next one....

 3. Visit every one of the United States. Territories too. Why not? I probably have already visited 30 or more states. I will have to sit down and figure out which ones I have left to visit one of these days. I want to get an RV and hit the road!

 4.  Build my own home. Strawbale, on my own land. And a large greenhouse to go with it.

 5.  Travel to destinations on every continent. I suppose that Antarctica could be excepted, since I don't think there is much in the way of destinations there. For example, a good itinerary might include the Great Barrier Reef (snorkeling) in Australia, riding the Euro Rail on a one-month pass, to see everything I can, the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru, and so on.

  Well, I am exhausted just writing these down! I better get to work on getting in shape, because I am going to need it. Seriously though, I hope that I am able to do all this and more. No, I don't hope, I plan to. And I will, because positivity is the best force for forward momentum in our lives--and besides, it's exciting to plan and work toward these kind of goals, right??