My Bucket List 2017

I’ve been working on a bucket list – things I want to do before I die. I feel like I need some new goals so I wanted to carefully consider what I want out of life at my position of 45 and comfortable so after consideration of a variety of aspects of my life, this is what I’ve come up with.

EXPERIENCES

Ride the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago with friends or family. I adore Ferris wheels. I giggle like a little girl without a care in the world.

Have high tea at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. A little class never hurt anyone.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Become competent with both vegan cuisine and wild game to stretch myself in the kitchen. I started on this one this winter by exploring the cookbook “Vegan with a Vengence” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and knocking a few good ones right out of the park. For Christmas, Hubby got me a copy of “Buck, Buck, Moose” to have on hand for when he gets his first deer.

PHYSICAL OR MENTAL STATES OF BEING

Be mentally prepared to change jobs. My job is not in jeopardy but I feel stuck in the mindset of working for my current employer through retirement. I’ve already been there 18 years. That would mean 22 more. I don’t believe that’s realistic. Life happens, for better or for worse. I want to feel agile enough to keep my options open so while I don’t have plans to change jobs I want to feel prepared to do so and generate some excitement for the possibility of new opportunities.

Be physically fit enough that I can walk a 10K whenever I feel like it (and often!). I’ve never been sporty or athletic but I was in perfectly acceptable shape as a younger person. My physical health is something I’ve let slide and I want to get back, at the very least, to being able to walk a goodly amount. We used to walk a 5K most Saturdays earlier in our marriage and really enjoyed it. My goal is to be able to double that and to walk more regularly. Hubby and I have started practicing at our favorite park and already I’m walking farther than the beginners circuit we started with.

Get right with God and my own spirituality. This is the item on my bucket list that is getting the most of my attention lately.

“THINGS”

I would like to own a 1710 copy of Katherine Philips poetry. I studied this Welsh poet in college and just fell in love. I went to England and Wales to research her and still have big chunks of her work memorized. When I was in London I had the opportunity to buy one of her originals for 350 pounds, or about $500. That was more money than I could conceive of at the ripe age of 21. Her books now sell for considerably more than $500 but I’m financially comfortable and I believe this would be a good investment. There aren’t a lot of “things” I want, but this is one of them.