In honor of my trip to Australia, which was at the top of my “bucket list” and I crossed it off a year ago (by the way, it’s on there a few times, so I WILL be going back 🙂 – I will be posting some of my favorite photos of my trip. This one is of me and my lovely friend Diane in Sydney harbor.
I was thinking about where the term “bucket list” may have come from and I found this : “In 2004, the term was used—perhaps for the first time?—in the context of things to do before one kicks the bucket (a phrase in use since at least 1785) in the book Unfair & Unbalanced: The Lunatic Magniloquence of Henry E. Panky, by Patrick M. Carlisle. That work includes the sentences, “So, anyway, a Great Man, in his querulous twilight years, who doesn’t want to go gently into that blacky black night. He wants to cut loose, dance on the razor’s edge, pry the lid off his bucket list!”.
Sometimes I think that we all just continue to put things on the list and sadly never get around to it because we think we have forever. I have lived the fast-paced career life and don’t regret giving my heart and soul to my patients, but I did hate the commute- what a waste of my time- and I also hated the politics of it all. The worst part of my day should always have been helping my patients deal with the bad things life handed to them, not the politics of healthcare. I have had all the “trappings”, and I don’t like to feel trapped. I am trying to choose a more balanced life. Do I only want to remember the work I’ve done in my life in the end? No, I want to remember the wonderful places I’ve been and the times I’ve played. They don’t have to be big things – just noticing the beauty in everyday moments is a wonderful start.
I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my patients. I saw a couple, and he had Alzheimer’s disease, he was just 65, knew 5 different languages, was a professor and was waiting to retire to use those languages and travel all around the world with his lovely wife. Now he lies in a bed and can’t speak. Hopefully, we do have time to cross things off of that list, but it seems to me that we need to make it happen more than most of us do. Procrastination is not a good thing, in any aspect of life. To be cliche’, Life is Short and we should embrace the moments while we have the time, and NOW is the only time we know that we have.
Barefoot in Bluejeans 