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I recently saw the film "Bucket List" -- in which two men with terminal illnesses decide that they will embark on a quest to fulfill as many items as they can from their "Before I die I want to..." lists. The film is worth watching. Morgan Freeman's character really got my attention when he said that the ancient Egyptians believed we are asked two questions before entering the afterlife -- “Have you found joy in your life?” and “Has your life brought joy to others?”
I wondered what I would say.
Do I have an unspoken "to do" list -- things I want to accomplish in whatever vast or small amount of time before I pass from this life? Do you? Is there, lurking in my mind, some joy-filled goal list -- do I want there to be?
I discovered that I did have a list informally filed away in my below-conscious thoughts. I hadn't been aware of it, hiding there, accumulating items, but there it was, unfolding my own secrets to me as though they had been rolled up in ancient parchment and buried away for years.
Here are some samples of the items:
1. Actually finish writing a book, and submit it via an agent for publication.
2. Win the "weight loss war".
3. Grow an entirely organic vegetable garden, and can or freeze the proceeds. (I lived in apartments until this year when I bought a house.)
4. Be of significant and focused help to a single charitable cause, even if I don't have a lot of money to offer.
5. Take a pottery course.
6. Learn to do intricate mosaic.
7. Go back to Australia for a long visit.
8. Forgive anyone I have yet to forgive.
These are items that without some extra effort will not happen in the course of my average days. They all hit the "I- want-to-get-to-this-eventually list" -- many landed there long ago. I looked at it and realized that there are really no outrageous obstacles that would prevent me from getting an item onto a "fulfilled" list. I also realized that part of me carried these and the other items on my list of undone items as burdens, longings, and in some cases deep yearnings.
They all have an "I can do this later" sense of disposability -- as though they were options as opposed to important goals. What's up with that? None would harm anyone. Each would bring me joy. What about that is disposable and why?
Do you have such a list? What reasonable joys are you deferring, and for how long?
We all defer joys, defer accomplishments. Sometimes it makes huge sense to slide something over to the wait-for-it column, but I suspect most of you have a list thatworks like mine -- it is full of possible things, things that can be done with attention and time.
Why are we waiting? I looked at the list and realized that I have been wanting to take a pottery class for over 30 years. That is just plain silly. I have the time. There must be classes nearby. This one seems easy to do -- so I'll pluck that off the list this next week and find a place to take lessons.
Some items will have to be squeezed in. That's OK -- I have room to squeeze if I am honest with myself.
Some items require a disciplined commitment. I can do that.
How would it benefit all of us to have "rounder lives"? Lives that had more reasonable joys in them? Are there undone items on your list that would bring you or others increased joy? What is stopping you from clipping away at your list?
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
RELATED BLOGS
Julie at Julie Unscripted tackles the issue of helping others lose weight as she has -- and not deferring the actions needed.
Natalie starts her list here.
Tasha posts her list, and adds a list of qualities for which she would like to be remembered.
You can read Lynda's list here.
This Brazen Teacher posts her from-the-heart list here.
