The bucket list!

I always seem to be mentioning 100 things/trips/projects/blah blah blah to do before I die in this and richmondrambles. I think cartoonists are also 'onto it'. It seems only a few years ago that I saw the first book including the words 100 things to do ...... and now they are everywhere on every conceivable subject. They have spawned babies!! Everyone is on the bandwagon.

Leunig (The Age) "Bert is making his bucket list: a catalogue of all the things he never ever wants to do again before he dies"

 

But for me a list seems to give impetus to 'just do the things you want to do/go where you want to go/live how you want to live/blah blah blah - and of course have an ever-enquiring mind. Some of the lyrics of 'Do what you want" come to mind

so do what you want to do
be what you want to be

yeah!!

I seem to be mentioning my father a lot recently (I don't know why but I guess he played a pretty significant part in the way 'I live now' - what with nerping, travelling and basically living life to the full (sometimes to overflowing!). He always had a list well before bucket lists were fashionable. I remember as the time was getting closer for the 'things to do before he died' he ticked them off (there was another list just in case). If I recall it entailed 'The Fall in Canada', 'Back O'Burke' (I couldn't believe they had a website!!) and 'The Black Stump' in far west New South Wales (who knows why). Even as his health deteriorated there were little adventures closer to home which became his tick-off achievements.

How often do we hear people saying "I want to do this before..." but never do. And yes I understand that often that is due to economics, family pressures - but often it is just that the impetus 'to do it' gets lost in the day-to-day run-of-the-mill of life. This is sounding like a lecture! But what I was taught growing up was that if you see an opportunity - grab it with both hands and run with it. The destination is not always what impacts the most - it's the little things that occur along the way that often have the most lasting impressions. 

Weldon - another cartoonist (The Age)

Do you have a list? Go-to-it. Make a list. Add to the list. Tick off the list. Explore. Nerp. Have fun!