thinkin...

So often we say we will do ________ tomorrow. Or "next time." This last weekend has me really thinking about all this. On Saturday I attended a funeral for the mother of a friend. The momma passed less than a month after finding out she had cancer. Then it was much too late for her to start checking things off her bucket list!

The morning after the funeral, I heard that a teacher from the elementary school I attend had passed away. She was older, 92 I believe, but were there things she still wanted to do that she had been putting off? Later that same day I found out of another passing. This person, a friend and colleague, surely had things he'd yet to do that he wanted to get done. In fact he had recently left his hometown to be near his only child and only grandchild. At least he had done that. Many moments were had that would have been missed if he had stayed put.

In my thinking, I know there is a lesson here. It is God's way of showing us - again - that life is short. Every second has to count. Tell people you love them. Help each other. Be there. Don't put it off. Go for it!

I created a bucket list several years ago. In the time since the list was written, I have been able to check a few things off the list, but not near what I should have done in the last years worth of time. I need to get busy. Here is just a sampling of what still has to get done:
play golf
play chess
see a Broadway show
go to the opera
help w/ humanitarian aid
make a quilt
learn to crochet
find my soul mate
have a book published
become a photographer
see the Bears play at Soldier Field
own a home
see the Triple Crown races
ice skate
attend Indy 500
watch baby sea turtles make their way into the ocean
go sailing
visit Washington DC
go horseback riding in the mnts.