101 in 1001

A couple of weeks ago on a Monday morning my husband and I awoke, showered and got dressed so we could attend the funeral of our friend's mother.  She was only 63.

After the funeral, we got into our vehicle and drove home.  Both of our hearts were heavy.  We both understood all too well the family's feeling of loss.
 
This year I have seen the death of my father-in-law, and it seems that every time I turn around I hear of the death of another friend's parent.  This makes me incredibly sad for my friends and grateful that I still have both of my parents. The deaths that have been in my circle of friends feels like a whisper from the universe – “pay attention”.  As Oprah Winfrey says, when you don’t listen to the whispers, they turn into shouts, and then one day you find the universe kicking you upside of the head.  Something drastic happens and you have no choice but to pay attention.


Finally this death prompted me to start paying attention.  Something changed.  Maybe I was inspired by this woman's determination to change her life in spite of her age and circumstances.  Or maybe I'd just reached my limit - I don't know.  But when we drove home that day I had decided that I wasn't going to let my life just keep on floating past me.  The end comes too swiftly, and we never really know when it will be our turn.


It's way too easy to get caught up in our own busy-ness.   At least it is for me.  But when the crunch comes, we make time to be with our friends and family in their time of need.  Why do we wait until the end to do this?  


So I made a vow to myself that I would make a change.  I don’t want to wait for “someday”.  Although I think that I will likely have many more years with all of my loved ones, I don’t know that for sure.  And what if I’m wrong?  Are there things I want to do or to say?  Yes!


As we drove home I said to my husband, "I want to go on that river canoe trip with my dad that we've always talked about.  I want to do it this summer."  His response was simple.  "Do it."


After I came home and went about my day, these thoughts continued to rumbling around in my head.  What experiences am I putting off?  What memories do I wish to create?  And why am I waiting?  


So I sat down and started a “bucket list” – ie.  things I want to do before I kick the bucket.  Then I remembered the list my friend Jeanine wrote up.  It was 101 things to do in 1001 days, because "someday" is too nebulous.   
Here it is.

1. Learn how to spin wool
2. Buy a house
3. Take a canoe trip down the North Saskatchewan River with my dad
4. Travel to New York City with my mom and Kaelyn
5. See a musical on Broadway
6. See an opera at the Met
7. Have high tea at Rutherford House
8. Do an overnight trail ride
9. Have high tea at the Empress in Victoria
10. Have high tea at the Hotel MacDonald
11. Paint a watercolour picture
12. Do an over night kayak trip on the West Coast
13. Can my own raspberries and peaches
14. Grow a vegetable garden
15. Learn to belly-dance
16. Plan a wardrobe with an image consultant
17. Take a writing class
18. Write a book
19. Take my daughter to Disneyland
20. Find a creative collaborator and launch a new artistic creation
21. Start a mastermind group
22. Learn how to cook Indian Food (East Indian not Native Indian!)
23. Finish reading 10 books I’ve started but never finished
24. Learn how to change the oil in my vehicle
25. Go cross-country skiing at Elk Island Park
26. Swim in a lake
27. Do yoga four times in a month
28. Learn to play a song on the guitar
29. Take my parents out for dinner
30. Have a girls night out at the Creperie
31. Explore all of the off-leash dog parks in Edmonton
32. Take K swimming with the dolphins
33. Double my current average monthly earnings
34. Triple my current average monthly earnings
35. Drive through the Okanagan when the cherry blossoms are out
36. Take my dog to agility training.
37. Buy some beautiful new bath towels
38. Have a makeover with my daughter
39. Learn 10 new vegetarian recipes
40. Visit Calgary.
41. Have a pedicure
42. Spend an entire day reading.
43. Complete an entire course of The Artist’s Way
44. Attend a play
45. Become involved in a political cause
46. Perform a recital in Edmonton
47. Host a cooking bee with friends
48. Go strawberry picking
49. Pick wild blueberries or saskatoons
50. Visit a lake in Alberta I’ve never been to and have a picnic there
51. Go for a sauna at my cousin’s
52. Stay overnight at my aunt’s
53. Visit the Devonian Botanical Gardens
54. Get a fancy camera and learn how to take pictures that are true to what I see
55. Dye my hair platinum blonde
56. Lose twenty pounds
57. Make a new friend
58. Get pet insurance
59. Have disposable income
60. Split my disposable income into funds for Financial Freedom, Education, Fun, Charity and Major Purchases/Travelling
61. Have 10 date nights with my husband
62. Learn how to do basic wiring
63. Learn how to drywall
64. Learn how to install flooring
65. Start a fund to save for my parent’s 50^th Wedding Anniversary
66. Get a headstone for my father-in-law’s grave
67. Train Riley so well that she’ll stay outside of a store while I run in for a few minutes (to get coffee!)
68. Do an overnight hike with K and G
69. Go to a naturopath to get in tip top health
70. Wear a bikini proudly
71. Have a glamour photo shoot done of myself
72. Try 5 new red wines
73. Buy a pair of dead sexy, totally frivolous shoes
74. Transfer all of our pictures onto CDs
75. Make a CD of Cara and Justin’s wedding photos and give it to them
76. Learn a Mozart concert aria
77. Organize all of my files
78. Sort through and store all of my daughter’s toys
79. Have a professional family portrait taken
80. Buy new bras
81. Start the habit of taking a multivitamin everyday (cross this off after a consistent 6 weeks)
82. Paint pottery with my daughter
83. Make a scrapbook of Cath’s birthday and send to her
84. Read about the situation in the middle east and develop my own opinions on what is happening there
85. Follow politics everyday for a month
86. Frame my degrees and hang them up
87. Teach my daughter to jump double-dutch
88. Read 5 books about a culture I don’t know about
89. Be able to identify all the countries on a map of Africa
90. Be able to identify all the countries on a map of South America
91. Buy a new swimsuit
92. Sew myself something
93. Make my dad a carrot cake
94. Add 5 new fish recipes to my repertoire
95. Find a place to buy good smoked whitefish
96. Learn how to do Powerpoint
97. Finish my bucket list
98. Get business cards made
99. Make a business plan
100. Designate guardians for my daughter
101. Own 5 cat and dog-safe houseplants
102. Comb all of the knots out of my kitty’s coat and get it looking lustrous
103. Top secret! 
104. Have two sets of sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers

As you can see, once I got going I thought of all kinds of things to do!  I have a few extras that I've decided to leave on the list in case some of the others are either unmanageable or cease to interest me. 

It's a cliche because it's true - life is short.  I don't know about you, but here's how I plan to jam pack it as full of good stuff as I can!