BUCKET LISTS

Bucket list: the things I gotta do before I kick the bucket. 

It is strange how we keep putting off the important things in life. Sometimes we are left with the regret that we did not nurture a relationship properly, that we were not good enough to another human being. Sometimes there is a place that we have always wanted to go, something that we have always wanted to do. 

Hanalei Beach, Kauai, Hawaii

Sure enough, if we live our lives correctly we will always be doing the thing that we should be doing; but who is that person and who lives that kind of life? I suppose that retirement itself has long been on my bucket list. It remains now as a loosely formulated set of hopes and dreams for the future.

I always thought that I would love to travel the world upon retirement. There are places that I have always wanted to go and magnificent photographs still to be taken. The combination of traveler and photographer has long been translated into my forlorn, lost wish that I could be a National Geographic photographer. 

Instead I have spent my last 30 years working in the mental health field at a hospital. A couple of years ago, I was having dinner in a riad in Morocco. 

Dar Seffarine Riad, Fez, Morocco

Sharing food family style at a large table, I engaged in a conversation with the guy next me, an American who had been living in Australia for many years. I asked him what he did for a living. His response was, “I am retired now. I volunteer at a hospital helping to distract young kids when they are having medical procedures done. I love doing this. It is so meaningful. I feel like I missed my life’s calling.” I asked him what he had done before retirement and he responded, “I was a National Geographic photographer.” We laughed long and hard when I told him my story.

I do have a list of places that I want to go. I maintain Pinterest pages on specific destinations and even have a board entitled “MyTravel Bucket List.” When I was younger I was able to travel freely despite lacking funds. In 1974 I left England with $150 and proceeded to spend the next three years traveling in Germany,  overland to Iran, Afghanistan, and India. 

That's me (on the right) in Varanasi, India, 1978

Certainly I had to find some work along the way but it was a wonderful opportunity to live in some exotic places for extended periods of time. Since those days I have continued to travel. 

Once employed in a full time job I could better afford to travel but was short on vacation time and my journeys had to be packed into three-week blocks here and there. I had always hoped that in retirement I could once again spend periods of months or even years living in new places. As I have grown older it has become harder to travel. Airplane seats are now tighter, and costs are higher. I can no longer sleep in a hammock or in the back of a truck. I need to plan ahead. I am more fearful of being robbed as I have more to lose. I value my life in a different way and carry more fears about my safety and well-being.

I understand that bucket lists are not all about travel. They are also about achievement, fulfillment, trying new activities, spending more time doing the things that give us pleasure, creating calm, and ultimately helping us understand what life is all about at least on a very personal level.