For most of my life, I've had a very short bucket list, with very few "must do" items on it to check off. All I ever really wanted out of life were two things: 1., to get married; and 2., to become a mother. God answered both of those prayers when I got married to my high school sweetheart, the love of my life--the boy I started dating at 15, the man I married at 22--in 1980 and then we were blessed with five baby boys between 1983 and 1993. Those babies are all grown up now; they're sweet, loving, smart, handsome, funny, talented, successful young men (and yes, I may be a bit biased; but no, I'm not exaggerating).
For the longest time, those two things were the only items on my list. Check...and check! But as my boys got older and I began to see a future with daughters-in-law and grandchildren in it, I added a new "must do" experience to my list, something I wanted almost as badly as I'd wanted to become a mother: to become a grandmother. Again, God answered my prayer--with gusto!--when our oldest son and his wife welcomed twin baby girls into the world in 2011. Check! [Sigh.] Life was good; life was very, very good for this wife/mother/grammy.
Those three items were the big ones, the trifecta; there was only ever one other thing I hoped to accomplish in my lifetime, a crazy little pipe dream that I figured would never be fulfilled: I hoped one day to write and publish a novel. Now, as I look forward to the upcoming release of Finding Grace, I realize that my life has surpassed any and all of the dreams I had for it. I feel like the luckiest woman alive. If I live to see the rest of my sons as happily married as my first son is, and to meet some more darling grandchildren, my cup--which already runneth over--will be refilled a hundredfold.
I don't care that I'm only in my fifties and might have (God willing) a couple of decades more on this earth to get things done. I'm not going to add things like "travel to India," "become fluent in three foreign languages," "ride in a hot air balloon" (if you made me do that, I would feel like I was in some kind of horror film!), "go bungee jumping" (AAAARRRRGGGG! Isn't the horror film over yet?), or "swim with dolphins" (hmmm...I must admit that's one thing I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to do).
Actually, I just thought of something else I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to do: "travel to Rome with my husband." I'm not going to write it on a bucket list or anything, however. If I ever get to do that, it will just be gravy, the icing on the cake, the cherry on top--it will just be one of those oft-used food references.
What about you? What's on your bucket list? (If climbing Mt. Everest is on there, I commend you--and please disregard what I said earlier. I'm just an indoorsy person with a fear of heights.)
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