Around the age of seven, I started reading the National Geographic magazine.

Actually, at first, it was viewing the wonderful photographs and later the written words. Very quickly, once a month did not quench my thirst for adventure and travel so I started reading back issues at the public and school libraries. It wasn’t very long before I wished to become a National Geographic photographer to travel the world and witness its mysteries and beauty.

Just before my tenth birthday, our family got a Grundig 965WE radio. This great radio was imported all the way from Germany (a big thing during those days). It had three shortwave bands. I can remember the weekends and long summer nights that I was allowed to spend half the night searching out signals from all over the world. I remember sitting in our enclosed front porch lighted only by the yellow glow of the radio, turning  the big knob, millimeter by millimeter, to find conversations in strange languages. I laid there in the night dreaming of traveling to those far-off lands.

Around  this time, I started making lists of places that I would travel to and the things that I would do when I arrived there. At the time it was just my personal wish list but my dreams lived in those lists.

I have visited so many of the places that I dreamed of as a young boy. Some of the places exceeded my expectations and others did not. My wish list did not  prepare me for the stark reality of a few of the locations I visited.

As a young man, I embarked on a long  journey that would teach me  the  life lessons of  the reality and complexity of the world  around me. By visiting so many of the locations on my wish list; I developed my humanity.

The experience of travel is the greatest education that a human being can experience. It surely was for me.

I witnessed over the years my wish list changing  in ways that reflected the different stages of my life. For a long while it became my “to-do-list” that reflected the importance and the urgency of my professional life and the resulting strong impact on my life. At times, my “to-do-list” was a heavy burden and  negative force bringing great pain and sorrow to my personal life. I accepted this compromise on my happiness as a “necessary evil of life.” How naive I was.

What I have learned so far is the fact we do control our lives. We may not control events but we do control how we reacted and how we choose our  course of action in response to these events.

We are the final arbiter of our physical and spiritual life on earth. It is sad that many of us learn this simple truth so late in life and much sadder is the reality the many more will never learn.

Many of you have never really make a wish list. I am not talking about your shopping list, your “get you through the day” list or even your childhood Christmas wish lists. I am talking about those thoughts that pass through your day-dreams, the thoughts you have when you can’t sleep and, yes, those dreams that you dream during the dark of night.

When you start your wish list, you will know very quickly what is real and what is not. Trust me, you will feel it…maybe not in a day or so but in time you will know what to remove and what to add. Make your list with  the things that your inner spirit “hungers” for and desires. No matter how small or how large, write it down. If you are true to yourself, you will define who you really are and what you truly want in this life.

Up to this point, I have called the list a “wish list.” I know that many are calling it “the bucket list” after seeing the movie of the same title.

I believe that up until a certain age or stage of life, one should not use the term “bucket list.” I have always believed that we should have a strong level of optimism in our lives and the notion of a “kick the bucket” list just doesn’t sit right in most people’s mind. I would like to recommend a new name for your list- My Fulfillment List. How does that sound-does it work for you?

I have reached a point in my life where I am in the process of accepting the future finality of my life. Please, don’t get me wrong as I am not ready to depart this world but I would be foolish not to accept the reality of my years.

So I, still, will call my list the My Bucket List with my tongue in cheek and half-held breath. I have this idea that maybe I will live to be in my 90s as the genes are there in my family. If that is the case then I have only lived two-thirds of my lifetime and I have a lot of living still to do.

Whatever your age or what you finally decide to call your list – take the time to start on your list. It will bring a new personal sense of focus into your life. Let me quote a few words from the movie The Bucket List:

“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 (Morgan Freeman)

I, also, like the following words of advice:

“Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed” –Storm Jameson

I do feel true joy in my life and I hope my life has brought and continues to bring  joy to others. I have always felt deeply about many people and many things in my life. I am learning to enjoy more simply the things in my life. I have always thought freely and, yes,  I have risked my life for the greater good. Lastly, it is my wish that I will be always needed.

“Our lives are streams flowing into the same river towards whatever heaven lies in the mist beyond the falls. Find the joy in your life…close your eyes and let the waters take you home” –The Bucket List

Below is My Bucket List. It will be a living, growing list that will be changed and added to over time. I hope you will do the same. After my list, I have included a section with ideas and suggestions on how to make your list.

My Bucket List

1. To be blessed by God with a healthy life into my 90s so that I might continue to enjoy the beautiful wonders of my life with my wife and children. To be able to witness my children grow into adults and find love and prosperity within their lives. To have for many years to come, the blessing of waking up each and every morning with the love of my life beside me. There is no greater joy in my life.

2. That I may be able to find the means to provide long-term financial security for my family after I have departed this life.

3. To continue on my quest to bring God more to the center of my life. He has always been in my life but in a way that has been unbalanced on my part. At times, I asked so much of Him and other times I hardly thought of Him.  I see the wonders of my life as His blessings but I, like so many others, struggle with my thoughts and convictions concerning His presence in my life and the world around me. There are so many “whys” in my mind concerning God’s Plan. I have so many questions that continue to go unanswered . I hope that through study, mediation, and prayer the important questions are answered and the rest will not need answers. The ultimate solution is to believe so strongly that no answers are necessary – the real solution  I pray for each day.

4. Have a conversation with God.

These will remain as my top four wishes on my list as they are a “work in progress.” My other wishes are as follows:

5. Build a new house for my family.

-More to Come-

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Tips for Your List

1. Don’t buy into your ideas and turn them into goals right away. Mull them over. If you weigh them carefully, you’ll probably find you can improve, replace or cancel them while enhancing your overall life experience.

2. Review your list items often to make sure you still want to do it. Your list should be open ended. Maintain enough flexibility that you don’t become a slave to your own list. Make sure you keep working on adding new items while completing others.

3. Document and share your goals for added enjoyment. If life is worth living, it ought to be worth writing about so commit some of these planning steps to writing. Writing the stuff down is a proven technique for turning goals into reality. Sharing them with others close to you helps to cement your commitment to the goals and to bring others into the process.

4. Ensure your goals are consistent with who you are. Or reshape them to suit your style and preferences. For example, introverts and extroverts alike can enjoy a certain travel destination like say the Vatican, yet experience it quite differently from the physical or spiritual approach .

5. Make a plan and enjoy the process. Planning is not optional. It is a generally accepted as being a requirement by most of the experts in the field of setting and achieving goals.

6. Lastly, make sure you get satisfaction and joy from your day to day experiences. Don’t suffer the 99% to get to the 1% you enjoy. Make the whole experience of life an enjoyable one.

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The Bucket List – The Movie

The Bucket List is a 2007 comedy-drama film written by Justin Zackham, directed by Rob Reiner, and starring Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, and Rob Morrow. The story follows two terminally ill men (Nicholson and Freeman) on a road trip with a wish list of things to do before they “kick the bucket.”

The film received its premiere on December 15, 2007 in Hollywood. It opened in limited release in the United States and Canada on December 25, 2007 and was distributed by Warner Bros. The film opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on January 11, 2008 and was released in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2008. The film was released in Australia on February 21, 2008.

Movie Plot

Blue-collar mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and billionaire hospital magnate Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) meet for the first time in the hospital after both have been diagnosed with cancer. They become friends as they undergo their respective treatments. Carter is a gifted amateur historian and family man who had wanted to become a history professor, but in his youth had been “broke, black, and with a baby on the way” and thus never rose above his job at the McCreath Body Shop. Edward is a four-times-divorced health care tycoon and cultured loner who enjoys nothing more than tormenting his personal valet/servant, Matthew (Sean Hayes), whom he calls Thomas. He makes Matthew serve Carter as well as him and orders his employee and doctor to familiarize himself with Carter’s health.

The Bucket List Movie Poster

Carter begins writing a “bucket list,” or things to do before he “kicks the bucket.” After hearing he has less than a year, Carter wads it up and tosses it on the floor. Edward finds it the next morning. He urges Carter to do everything on the list (suggesting he add things like skydiving) and offers to finance the trip. Carter agrees, despite the protests of his wife, Virginia.

The pair begins an around-the-world vacation, embarking on race car driving, skydiving, climbing the Pyramids, and going on a lion safari in Africa. They discuss a rare coffee and its unusual taste. They also confide about faith and family, revealing that Carter has long been feeling less in love with his wife and that Edward is deeply hurt by his estrangement with his only daughter, who disowned him after he sent some people to “take care of” her abusive husband by physically assaulting him.

In Hong Kong, Edward hires a prostitute for Carter, who has never had sex with any woman but his wife. Carter declines and asks to return home. In gratitude, he tries to reunite Edward with his daughter. Edward angrily storms off. Carter returns home to his wife, children, and grandchildren.

The family reunion is short-lived. In the preparation for a romantic interlude, Carter suffers a seizure and is rushed to the hospital. The cancer has spread to his brain. Edward, who is now in remission, visits him and they share a few moments, where Carter reveals to great amusement the disgusting origin of the “world’s most rare coffee” (Kopi Luwak), over which Edward obsesses and Carter has refused to drink. Carter crosses off “laugh till I cry” from his bucket list and insists Edward finish the list without him. Carter goes into surgery but the procedure is unsuccessful. He dies on the operating table.

Edward delivers a eulogy at the funeral, explaining that he and Carter had been complete strangers, but the last three months of Carter’s life were the best three months of his (Edward’s). He crosses off “help a complete stranger for a common good” from the list. We see Edward finally attempt to reconcile with his daughter. She not only accepts him back into her life but also introduces him to the granddaughter he never knew. After greeting the little girl with a kiss on the cheek, Edward crosses “kiss the most beautiful girl in the world” off the list.

In the epilogue, it is revealed that Edward lived until the age of 81, and his ashes are brought to the top of the Himalayas. It turns out to be Matthew who does this, and as he places Edward’s ashes alongside a can containing Carter’s, he crosses off the last item on the Bucket List (“witness something truly majestic”) and places it beside them.