July 20th, 2016
The Letter is B, for BUCKET List
It's not that I'm closing up shop, but my Bucket List is strangely reminiscent of preparing to Close the Doors for good.
No, no, - what I am trying to do is make life more serene, - stuffing the bucket full of things accomplished and stressful decisions made....
My Bucket List doesn't contain any exotic wishes - like visiting the Taj Mahal, riding elephants in Africa or crossing Canada by rail - it is much more prosaic, but just as satisfying.....
In one corner, tucked in beside the piano, I have a chest of drawers full of music, a CD stand bulging with discs, more CDs in the tall stand Charles made to hold them and the myriad DVDs we gathered over the years,as well as the LPs that that we treasured when that's where beautiful music came from, to fill the home. Some of them not sent twirling for years........
So that's No. 1 on my Bucket List - to listen to each of them at least once more, and keep the CD player hot on the go, from morning until evening, when occasionally I will watch a DVD, or even an old VHS that languishes towards the back. Haven't watched On Golden Pond for years.......
And No. 2 would have to involve snapshots! Have you any idea how many pictures you can accumulate in eight decades??? And the frames to fill them....?
Speaking of frames, how about all the pictures hanging on the walls, waiting for a little tape to be affixed assigning their final destination. Oh, who would like what? This will have to be No. 3 on the list, I think....
And the genealogy papers. All the emails and correspondence I saved when that was my great passion - the little notes that found their way into the family tree but still linger in files and notebooks. No. 4, for sure....
Well, you get the drift of how my Bucket List is going to evolve into one great clean-up and when I come to the end of it I will be living a life of great simplicity and satisfaction.
Time to go and change discs on the CD - I have been listening to Louis Armstrong's Golden Jazz while I write. Next in the queue is Nigel Kennedy's Violin Concertos... the Concerto is too long to include, but here is a Kennedy recording that always brings tears.....
For more great Bs click here for ABC Wednesday,
with thanks to Roger, Denise and all their helpers.
12 comments:
Your bucket list reminds me of a questionnaire I had to fill in at work which asked "What are your goals for the next year?" - to which I replied "Not to make a nuisance of myself unless it's absolutely necessary". Apparently this was not the kind of answer they were looking for.
I'm hoping that "eighty decades" is just a slip of the typing finger and that you're not really up there in the Methuselah category just yet!
91 and 2/3rds John...time flies and we all get ancient eventually. Well, hopefully.
but not quite that old, - although sometimes it feels like it!!!
Strangely enough Hildred, Ithought this morning that it was time I cleaned out various drawers and put some of my things into more accessible order, but it is so hot here that I haven;t the energy to do it today!
I think your bucket list has to do with simplifying. I've been keen to simplify since I turned 70 a couple years ago. Somehow, I hope to spare my kids from going through all the stuff and wondering, "What did she save this for?" On another note, after 50 years of marriage, I can't find where I put our wedding album. Who loses their wedding photos? My D-i-L's want the album, but I can't find it. Apparently I've stored things too well! I know I didn't get rid of it!
"Bucket list" isn't a term I use, but in reading your post I find that many of the things on my personal 'to get done' list would echo yours--a lot of genealogy notes, old photos, keepsakes to sort and put into order. Fabric to be made into quilts; yet more items to be discarded.
One of the things that might qualify for a more conventional bucket list would be a long-nurtured dream of exploring in England, finding the locations where my ancestors lived--I daresay its not going to happen!
That's one thing that accumulates--pictures. We have been married 50 years this month and I have been going through pictures for the party, what a job. I don't know if I will ever get them all in albums.
Ann
An excellent list, a mix of practicality and pleasure.
Impressive list...I wish you can fullfill them all
Have a nice ABC-W-day / - week
♫ M e l ☺ d y ♫ (team abc-w)
{http://melodymusic.nl/abc-wednesday-19b/)
A great post! Best wishes..
It is hard to simplify after a few decades of living. We had to sell out and severely downsize before we could begin to get started on that goal. And yet ... stuff creeps in.
i'm sure that listening to beautiful music as you work on your goals turns what could be a task into a time of pleasure.
I have a variation on #4
ROG, ABCW
Post a Comment