What’s on YOUR bucket list? Really, all that? Awesome! Now forget it.
Well, don’t forget it. Just momentarily press pause on it.
But, you say, we have limited years on this planet! We must make the most of them!
True. A bucket list isn’t a bad thing. But it seems to me that we spend so much time hurtling pell mell forwards that we hardly know where we are – or where we have come from.
The fact is, although we like to think of our lives as linear, we actually make sense of it all in a more messy, circular fashion. It’s timey-wimey weebly wobbly. It’s Jeremy Bearimy, baby.
When we take a hike, it’s not just about the view from the top of the mountain. We see the flowers and smell the trees and connect it with all the memories we’ve made in nature. When we read a book, it’s not just about the last page. We take in the ideas and merge them in with connected thoughts already in our brains. Our memories of people and places and experiences and insights and inspirations surround us and buoy us up.
As such, I propose that if you make a bucket list, you make a balloon list too. That is, make a list of all the things that you love that you want to remember. Those things are your life too, just as much as whatever potential list items you’ve got.
Aspire to see the Colorado River cut through Grand Canyon? That’s great, but don’t forget how you felt when you splashed in puddles with your sister. Dream of the thrill of skydiving? Do it, but don’t forget that first roller coaster you rode with your daughter.
If you need a physical reminder of these times, maybe find one of those beaded bracelets and feel each balloon-shaped bead one by one. As you do, dwell just briefly on a happy memory that makes you you.
Fill your mind-space with your balloons just as much as your bucket – make a party in your brain. Chances are your past memories are waiting in there, ready to pop up and set you afloat in this life that is uniquely yours.
Thoughts...?!