WHAT'S IN YOUR BUCKET LIST?

Success is every minute you live. It's the process of living. It's stopping for the moments of beauty, of pleasure, the moments of peace. Success is not a destination that you ever reach. Success is the quality of the journey.

- Jennifer James

So what is on your BUCKET LIST?  What is it that your heart desires to complete this journey. I asked this question of two precious friends, as we ate chalupas at a Mexican restaurant. Here are a few of their answers.

Taking Cooking Classes

Riding the Canadian Rails Across Canada

Swimming with the Dolphins

Sky Diving

Getting a Tattoo

Making Someone Laugh Till They Cry

Touching  Lives and Changing Them

Milking a Cow
Running a Marathon

                                                                                     

Sounds  pretty doable to me.  Mine perhaps are even easier.  I have traveled extensively.  I have lived alive and awake.  I have lived complete and resplendent and traveled hand in hand with the great pain and circumstances and suffering that surround each of us in this journey called life.  But also pockets of peace and great love.

As I sat jotting down their lists, I tried to think of things I would put in my BUCKET LIST.  Mine are much more mundane perhaps to some.  But to me they exemplify peace, charity, love, and a life lived in a dimension I have never known, yet strangely have always known. There have been times when I thought that where I was in my life was near perfection.  But looking back the answer would be a resounding NO.  We learn, we live, we change, we struggle and we move on. 

For me my BUCKET LIST would contain:

Catching Snowflakes on my Tongue in the Colorado Rockies

Picking Wild Strawberries or Raspberries along a Mountain Stream

Hearing Thunder in the Mountains that lights up the quaking aspen - For this brings me closer to God than anything.

Laying in a hammock near blue waters in the Caribbean, listening - just listening.

Changing a life one at a time with patience, love, understanding - the gifts I have to offer through my understanding and deep compassion.

Inspiring others to greater heights.

A summer home in Colorado or New Mexico, places where I feel I truly belong.

And someday I would like to see the rural villages of Tibet - especially Naxi.

Finally, I would like to write another book.  I have written 54 books, but I want to write THE definitive book on pet therapy and how it assists our warriors returning with PTSD.  I would like to leave a legacy that this book started the ball rolling and can help our warriors to a degree others have never explored.

I want to continue holding the hand or those in great pain, for I know what it is like to be alone, frightened and in anguish.

This morning the sky is hidden.  I feel awakened.  The Penny's From Heaven Foundation that I have poured my life into for many years, is taking extraordinary new and exciting directions.  The pieces to the puzzle are literally falling into place.  The foundation has recently been purged of stumbling blocks and negativity.  The result has been nothing short of brilliant.  Our posture on the national stage is just beginning and the support we have received has been nothing short of phenomenal.

So perhaps filling your Bucket List with things to do is not complete until 'the universe' takes you by the hand and says, "No you are not quite ready yet...you have things to do, stories to tell, other lists to complete, and other hands to hold, other tears to wipe away, and other people who need your love, and other people who need to love you back."  And in my case, I am being told I need to laugh more, experience joy more, and learn to take the insults, assaults and backstabbing with a grain of salt.  People who do this to you are only satisfied if they injure you.  I for one won't allow them this luxury...they are quite frankly nonexistent and completely useless to me. 

So while you are filling your Bucket List with those things you might like to do, you might consider that perhaps, just perhaps, you are smack dab in the middle of filling, emptying, filling, and fulfilling that Bucket List right here, right now.  With every breath you take, with every heart you touch, with every life you shake awake, with every tear you wipe away. We all have wishes and hopes and desires, and yes, even selfish thoughts about what we would like to have in our lives or experience before we die.  Perhaps our Bucket Lists can be filled everyday we take a breath by doing the right thing and  being a good person and by deflecting the bullets of hatred and anger from others.  Perhaps we have that choice every day. 

From The Bucket List

"Get Busy Living...or Get Busy Dying"

Carter Chambers : “You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. ‘Have you found joy in your life?’ 'Has your life brought joy to others?’”

Carter Chambers : Even now I cannot understand the measure of a life, but I can tell you this. I know that when he died, his eyes were closed and his heart was open. And I'm pretty sure he was happy with his final resting place, because he was buried on the mountain. And that was against the law.

Edward Cole : The simplest thing is... I loved him. And I miss him. Carter and I saw the world together. Which is amazing... When you think that only three months ago, we were complete strangers! I hope that it doesn't sound selfish of me but... the last months of his life were the best months of mine. He saved my life... And he knew it before I did.

This is all any of us can hope for.  Buckin' the system and taking a stand every chance we get to do the right thing, finding love for however long we might be blessed with it, and  treasuring the best months,  moments, and seconds of our lives.  And perhaps, just every once in a while, being able to save those amongst us who need saving.