Bucket List

[Tammy]

Me too LDAHL!

I was silly and naive and obsessive about writing in a diary daily when I was a kid. Cause dad said “write in this every day!” So I did. For about ten years. And it was boring cause I didn’t want to do it. So I made entries like this:

May 3, 1971
School. Homework. Piano practice. Bath. Bed.

Because I hated writing it all out when everyday was the same. But I had to write in it cause dad said so.

About 20 years ago I ceremoniously burned all of my diaries in a bonfire. I was raised in a family of curators. They saved everything and shamed us if we got rid of anything. When I was 8 they decided to cut my hair. So they made two braids, and cut the braids off. Then put the braids in a shoebox with tissue paper surrounding it. Like a coffin for the braids. I kept those silly things for decades cause of the shame in not feeling the sane nostalgia that my dad felt. Finally, after moving them several times, I threw them out when I was about 40.

And wouldn’t you know it - my parents asked me about them within the next year. I think I just let them talk and never confessed that I threw them out. So much guilt!

It was so much fun to burn those diaries.

[Yppej]

I do mine on my birthday too Float On.

[catherine]

I keep a notebook of lists. When I'm waiting in line or for an appointments I'll pull it out and make a new list of 10. Might be 10 fruits I want to try or 10 places I want to visit. Also, every year on my birthday private retreat a big part of it is making my list for the year (it's whatever my age is so this February I'll make a new list and it'll have 52 items on it) but it's more things I really want to try to fit into the next year. Some things I bump from year to year like there are still 2 covered bridges in our state that I haven't made it to yet since I started doing this list thing at age 45. So an over all "this is my life long bucket list", no. I review my list monthly, it stays in my planner. I date and make a note when I get to mark through something on my list and can see if there is something I can fit in while planning the next month.

That's a cool idea. But it's kind of daunting to make a list of things as long as my age.

[Tybee]

Maybe simplify it to one per decade, so each year on birthday I'd come up with 6 big things to do that year. Until I turned 70, anyway.

[Float On]

That's a cool idea. But it's kind of daunting to make a list of things as long as my age.

It would be daunting if they all had to be huge things but I throw a lot of little treats to me in there. It's about making sure I spend time on me and recognize it as a gift to myself.

[Teacher Terry]

I loved having a diary as a teen. However, I have long thrown away such things and will not leave anything written behind for someone to read.

[Gardenarian]

I don't have a list because the things I hope to have done in this life are kind of amorphous. Like staying healthy and happy. Having a close relationship with DD. Creating meaningful stuff. Personal growth.

I could try and break these things down into smaller steps, but I guess that's not how my mind works.

[catherine]

I loved having a diary as a teen. However, I have long thrown away such things and will not leave anything written behind for someone to read.

I've kept a diary since 1964. I consider it almost a historical artifact at this time. I have written about the assassinations of MLK and Bobby Kennedy and the walk on the moon and the Vietnam War and the hippie revolution all from the point of view of a teenager. It also serves as a timeline of my life for things that I forget about, and it's a tool for self-reflection because it's amazing to learn how your memory twists actual events, and even your feelings about them.

I would like to rip out the pages I wouldn't want my kids to read, but maybe type up an abridged version of the highlights, and then destroy the diaries themselves.

[Yppej]

Gardenarian I have some of those big generalities too - help launch my son, care for my parents as they get older, age gracefully, die with dignity.

[happystuff]

I loved having a diary as a teen. However, I have long thrown away such things and will not leave anything written behind for someone to read.

I did a ritual burning of mine about 20 years ago. I still write every day, but more of generic and, hopefully, little that would cause unnecessary pain to anyone who might read.