Retro-bucketing, anyone?

We hear a lot these days about having a bucket list, ever since the movie with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson came out in 2007. Many people have long lists of things they want to see, do and experience before they die.

I was thinking about that the other day as I sat on my sofa, basking in the leaf-filtered sunlight pouring in through my patio doors. I think I’ve had a subconscious bucket list before it was a thing.

As a young girl, one of my dreams (I suppose a “dream” can pass as a bucket list item) was to marry a man who loved me.

Check. Almost 44 years later we’re still enjoying married life!

Having lived in basic bungalow style homes throughout my childhood, I always wanted to live in an old two-storey home.

Check. The one we’re living in now is the second of two.

One of the books I read as a child featured a house where every bedroom included an ensuite. Wow!

Nope. As Mark Twain said, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”

As a child, I would lie in bed and dream of having a tree that leaned over the house and peeked into the second-floor window.

Check. A large birch tree leans protectively over my patio. (My dream did not include all the detritus this beloved tree sprinkles on the table and chairs much of the year.)

And wouldn’t it be lovely to have vines growing up the side of the house?

Check. Hops current cling to the rail fence, and Virginia Creepers grace part of the east wall of our house, and have totally taken over the south side of the garden shed.

These are a few examples of retro-bucketing.

You could also call it acknowledging God’s blessings.

Without my asking Him, God has graced my life with many beautiful and lovely things and people. I’m so thankful for these blessings and how they have enriched my life. I don’t have anything against a bucket list, a lineup of things still to be experienced, but in the anticipation of these oft-lofty goals, I don’t want to lose sight of all the things God has already gifted me.

If you were to make a retro-bucket list, what are some of the things that would be on it?

 

 

 

 

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Fifth-Tuesday Rant

NOTE: This post was mis-scheduled earlier in the month, so if it sounds like you’ve read it before, you probably have. I fixed the posting time, so here it is again. 

It’s always fun to veer off the beaten path every fifth-Tuesday and opinionate. I think the word is actually opine, but that sounds like something you might do in the forest, and I’m nowhere near a wooded area right now.

Today, I will opine on what may be a rather unimportant issue, but still one that has me stewing: GRAY

Gray

I strongly dislike gray. I don’t say “the colour gray” because I don’t think of it as a colour as much as a lack of colour. I think it comes to mind at this time of year because I have a certain degree of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). This means the lack of sunlight hours causes me to have trouble, even more than usual, getting out of bed in the morning and working at anything after supper. It means I have to ward off discouragement and depressing thoughts more than usual.

With that in mind, consider the “colour of the times.” Gray. We went furniture shopping recently. The couches and chairs are gray. The cushions are gray. My sister was looking for a new comforter for her king bed, and all she could find was shades of gray. People paint their walls one of the myriad shades of gray. *Note: Please, if you are a friend of mine and have gray walls, that’s your choice, and your house looks lovely, but I could not live healthily surrounded by gray.

We are all somewhat influenced by social pressures, and I believe we are being told that gray is the style colour to use these days. Another example of this social pressure is the plethora of Amish books that have glutted the reading market for the past decade. I read a few. That was all I needed. So, who is telling us that we want Amish fiction? Who is telling us that we want to surround ourselves with gray?

This world is a palette of colour.

The orange and pink and red of the sunset

The pink of my roses

The violets and yellows of my violas

The luscious reds or our apples

The unnumbered variety of greens in spring trees and grasses.

The rich earthy brown and the gold  of autumn leaves.

As my son said so eloquently when he visited Lima, Peru some years ago,

“It’s like a kid gone crazy with a huge box of crayons.”

Why in the world would I settle for gray in this wide world of colour? So I won’t.

I wish you all a year of brilliant colour in your life and work. May you be blessed.

NOTE: All photos in this blog are my own except for the first. I do not have a picture of gray. That one is from pixabay.com.

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Don’t Die with Your Music Still Inside You

“Don’t die with your music still inside you. Listen to your intuitive inner voice and find what passion stirs your soul. Listen to that inner voice, and don’t get to the end of your life and say, “What if my whole life has been wrong?”

– Dr. Wayne Dyer, bestselling author

That’s all. Find your passion, your God-given passion, and follow it.

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