Bucket List

In the last year, I have made myself a bucket list. You know the list that you make when you want to accomplish or experience something before you've clean your last toilet or are just too tired to care. Being what I used to consider middle aged now, I probably should have thought about this a couple of decades ago. My list includes the cheap, the expensive and the down right impossible. It includes both 'all about me,' and 'family' and 'the family of God.'

Here it is.

1. Have my mortgage paid off before I turn 55. Most everything on my list, realistically cannot happen til that is attained.

2. Horse back riding. I want to learn how to ride and take care of a horse. I have been on a horse a handful of times. I don't know how to ride and not look foolish doing it. I have old family videos that I look absolutely ridiculous in. I don't know if physically, this body can handle riding, but the answer is in the first lesson. I haven't booked a lesson yet. My financial goals have me taking care of other things first.

3. Learn sign language. What a lonely life it must be to be deaf. The statistics are astounding of how many children grow up with no communication with their parents because the parents won't learn sign. Even more astounding is that the large population of the deaf will never learn about Jesus because very few can speak to them in their language. I borrowed books from my mom, with the intention of self teaching. It is pretty clear that I need to take a class.

4. Go back to school. Besides learning sign, I also want to brush up on my Spanish. The first highschool I attended, I had taken 2 years in it, and was a B+ student. When we moved, and I transferred my classes, I started to fail. Spanish 3 was way harder than I could handle, so I dropped it.

5. Buy houses for cash, use rental income to fund my life, and my bucket list.

6. Find out if I have a 1/2 brother, without anyone getting hurt, including me losing a kidney over it. My biological father was less than faithful to my mom. He was an alcoholic and with that comes all kinds of bad behaviors. More on that another time. (Update~~~ 5/31/14, I tracked down and met the man I have believed to be my brother for the last 35 years. We found we had a lot in common and the idea that he could be my brother didn't surprise him in the least. We went ahead with the DNA tests, and it turns out that there is a less than 1% chance that we are siblings. This is pretty disappointing to us both. I will continue to try and help him find the answers that he needs, and am grateful that I have had the opportunity to meet and know this man that I really believed  was my brother from another mother.~He is a pretty cool guy.)

7. Take my entire immediate family on a paid for tropical cruise. Hawaii, Carribean, it does not matter. What can you do when you don't have a mortgage payment? Anything you want.

8. Go on a European tour. Italy, Spain, Ireland, and England.

9. Write and publish a book. I started writing a novel many years ago, finishing it would be awesome.

10. Be in full time ministry. I want to start a ministry that brings people together to help each other, all the while pointing them to Jesus. Knowledge of salvation is free. The ministry is based on the fact that everyone has a gift or skill that someone else can use, and those that are gifted and skilled also have needs that others can fulfill. Those who accept help will be expected to sign a contract to help others when needs arise. No outright handouts. Not a social program. No entitlements.

That's it. That is what I have so far. Do you have a bucket list? Whats on it? Have you begun to take steps towards achieving what is on your list? Life passes by so fast, if we don't set goals, we will soon be on the other side of really old and have regrets. Just do it. Just saying...