Upon a Sunny Day

bucket list

goals

things to do

The names sound trite and I don’t like them.  The best label I’ve come up with so far is “life list”.  Or maybe I should call it “the growing old together without getting bored list.”

Let me explain.  After a fairly intense conversation with my husband, I’ve come to realize there’s a chance once our kids have moved on, our lives might become quite blasé .  Or maybe, perhaps, outside of soccer games and college visits, they already are.

It’s very easy to develop a routine.  Up at 6am.  To bed at 10pm.  Spaghetti, tacos, burgers, pizza, something in the crock pot on winter Mondays.  A ball game in the spring.  Gallery hop three or four times a year.  A little give, a little take.  Yet year after year, basically the same thing.  Things we like.  Things we enjoy and look forward to.  Yet the same things.

Should we list out what we want to accomplish?  Should we brainstorm ideas of places we want to go [together], things we want to do [together]?  Should we map out the next 27 years?  Taking it as it comes seems unwise.  Life could, quite easily, develop into a funk.  Which could develop into something much worse.

So I’m thinking of items to put on our list.  We enjoy camping together.  Perhaps it only needs to be a list of places we want to visit.  Maybe that’s all we need.  Then I consider winter and the fact we don’t camp much December through March.  Should we join a bowling team?  Take up square dancing?  Put together a garage band?  The guy across the street seems to have one….should we walk over and offer our musical services?

Realistically, I want to expand our horizons.  Write a book together?  Help with a Habitat build?  Hike the Appalachian Trail?  Go on a long term mission trip?  Start following lacrosse?  It’s hard to know.  Is there a book one can read that offers suggestions?  Should we attempt our own list?  Will my husband think this is all a ridiculous idea?

I have the tendency to start things and not follow through.  Even with the best of intentions.  So my fear is I’ll list out 257 things that would be great to accomplish in our empty nest years and only get to four of them.  But bigger than that fear, is the gnawing ache that life will end up passing us by and we’ll become disinterested strangers.  People who clock in and out and talk a bit then watch television.  Where’s the fun in that?  Where’s the adventure?

Maybe that’s what to call it:  The Adventure List.