don't blink

I've always heard that we shouldn't get so focused on the future that we miss out on all the little things along the way. There is so much truth in that - you can't get so focused on what's to come that you forget to appreciate what's right in front of you. Wouldn't it have been nice for someone to tell us that when we were five and didn't appreciate that mid-day nap? 

The truth is that life passes us by in the blink of an eye and you don't realize it until it's happened. There are so many things we put off in order to focus on something else - I can't tell you the number of times I've told myself I'd do something only to find myself caught up in something else.  

I think we tend to tell ourselves we will do all the things we have planned once we have our life figured out. Yeah! Let's do all these fun things once we get our shit together. But we all know that never happens; we never really get our life together. Life is a process, so we should act accordingly and treat it as such. We should do all the things we want to do - when we want to do them - and stop putting it off. 

I've been constructing a mental bucket list for years, taking note of and imagining all the things I want to accomplish. This has been great until I came to a startling realization recently... 30 doesn't seem that old or that far away anymore and I haven't done much of what I've set out to do. 

I'm one of those people who has a lot of ideas. I jump from one thing to another and sometimes I tend to start things I can't finish. So, I've decided that in lieu of turning 25 in a few months that I would officially make a physical, written bucket list. Now, just to be clear, there's no time limit on my bucket list. Life should be a continuing journey, however; I want to make my list concrete so I don't lose sight of what's important to me in the moment  - whatever moment I'm in. 

Here it goes, in no particular order, since the little things in life are just as important as the big things:

1. get my Master's degree in counseling (almost there!)
2. become an LPC
3. become an LMFT
4. have my own counseling practice
5. travel to Italy, Paris, Ireland and Scotland
6. run a marathon
7. eat dinner at a restaurant by myself
8. do something kind for a complete stranger
9. own a beach house  
10. write a book
11. complete a triathlon 
12. have abs
13. take a photography class
14. make a significant difference in someone's life 
15. cook a steak on a grill by myself
16. visit Washington, D.C. and California
17. go horseback riding on a trail
18. go to a winery
19. fly first class
20. get a tattoo
21. volunteer at a crisis/trauma center
22. keep reading books
23. own a dog
24. go to a movie alone
25. fly a kite
26. conquer a fear
27. hear my child call me mom for the first time


That about sums me up for the moment. What's on your bucket list?



“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” - Ernest Hemingway