The Bucket List - Live, Love, Laugh
Now that I have found my niche, it should really be a piece of cake for me to churn out some wonderful posts, right? Well, as it turns out, I am still feeling overwhelming sadness and no matter how hard I try, I can't get it out of my mind.
What I am feeling these days is, I am sure, a very common feeling and many of you might be able to relate to. Losing someone can do this to anyone.
Sure I have laughed and even been to a couple of movies since my friend passed away just before Christmas, but I have felt bouts of sadness and depression in the last few weeks, off and on and as I struggled to come out of it, I felt a strange uneasiness and realized there was no need to try to come OUT of a feeling of sadness when someone is taken away from your life suddenly. Rather I was going to try and take this as an opportunity to reflect upon what my life is all about and truly try to enjoy it as if I had only a short time to live.
And as I traveled the web in the past few weeks, I kept coming across posts that had the same message, of living each day as if it were your last, all reminding us how trivial our everyday issues or complaints are. Simonne's post till death do us part, this may come sooner than expected, reminded how important it is to "never to go to sleep with unspoken things on your mind", Mig wrote about her friend's mother passing away, heard about Ashley Spencer, known on twitter as @ashPEAmama, a young mother who died in a car crash.
And then I came across a beautiful meme that I had not heard about before and it is called The Bucket List 2008 Meme, and on following the blog where this meme originated, I found Jeff of Pulver Blog saying this:
In the movie "The Bucket List", Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman decide to make the most out of what time they think they have left. In the movie they compile a list of things they still wish to accomplish, giving them some much-needed motivation and a desire to still stay young at heart.
In the spirit of the movie, and in the spirit of trying to make 2008 be the year that we all start to do some of the things we would like to accomplish one day, I thought it would be fun to reach out to friends across the blogosphere and ask them to share some of the things on their "Bucket List" they hope to remove during 2008. For some of us, these are not necessarily our "New Year's Resolutions", but rather things we have been meaning to do for some time that we WILL get done in 2008
And that was it.
The meme and the concept is a good reminder to all of us that talking about death shouldn't be a taboo, its a reality that we all are going to have to face one day. So, instead of denying it and ignoring it, we need to take time to evaluate what our dreams were and where our current life situations and routines are taking us, and then do everything to go after those goals and dreams before it is too late.
So, here is what I would like to do if I knew I had only a few months to live! And of course this could change if I REALLY knew I had a few months to live, who knows! But at my first hearing the news, I would
- start writing thank you letters to all the people who have influenced me in a positive way
- write letters to those who have hurt me (I'd email these on one last day though)
- quit my job and go for sky diving lessons
- paint, sing, smile and laugh more often
- visit Greece, England, Norway, India
- go hot air ballooning over some of the best cities
- put a letter in a bottle and throw it in the Ocean
- go for a safari in Africa
Of course I couldn't list some of the more personal wishes but these are all things that are achievable and I hope to work towards attaining them.
How about you?
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Sky diving, deep sea diving, completing a marathon are some of the activities I hope to do in my lifetime, and I don’t want to wait until the last few months of my life to do them.
Life is too short, so we have to make it worth. We should bear in mind that this life is just borrowed and we never know how long we could live/stay. If ever I have a few days left in my life, I guess I’ll spend it with my love ones, say sorry for those that I’ve hurt and ask forgiveness for the mistakes that I’ve done… and do things that I haven’t tried to do before.
I use the ’sedona method’ (buy the book instead of the way to expensive audio tapes :-)) And this really helps (much to my surprise).
It is basically about looking at your feelings consciously (grief for instance) and then asking whether you could let it go. It really make a big difference.
Olivier.
Law of attraction guy’s last blog post..On being and having
@betshopboy: good thinking, I wrote these and then thought, I should really start aiming to do all of them as soon as possible, ‘coz who knows?
pearl’s last blog post..The Bucket List - Live, Love, Laugh
Good stuff, Pearl! I love to see people following their passions and living life. There’s way too much unnecessary drudgery and boredom. If you keep thinking that there’s always tomorrow, you’ll definitely find out someday that there won’t be any more tomorrows.
Ray Dotson’s last blog post..Blogtrepreneur.com Is For Sale
@Mark - So true… asking for forgiveness is wonderful way to peace of mind.. but you say, “If ever I have a few days left in my life, I guess…” and thats the reason we need to write things down ‘coz theres no “IF” here
its a definite thing and writing things down, making life lists turns ‘guesses’ into concrete action plans!
pearl’s last blog post..The Bucket List - Live, Love, Laugh
@Olivier - thanks for the recommendation, I’ll look into it…
@Ray - What a surprise! Great to have you back Ray, but your last post should be something different now since Blogtrepreneur isn’t sold and is back
pearl’s last blog post..The Bucket List - Live, Love, Laugh
LMAO: I like the safari part. Let’s do that together!
Mig’s last blog post..Mea Culpa
hehe sure, that’d be real fun
It takes time to get over these things, lots of time. And still sometimes you never get completely over but the pain usually fades in general only to come back in smaller shorter stabs with time. But knowing this, and keeping busy, doing things that you will never regret - like those thank you cards, travels, and lessons you mentioned can help pass the time and keep you going forward. You have some great ideas so definitely DO them. That’s what I’m trying to do. And you know, we’ll love to hear about all your escapades on here too. So don’t forget to keep us posted.
teeni’s last blog post..The Old Lady Mobile
I am the same way when it comes to that i am sad for days
kaylee’s last blog post..Skipped school
Oh teeni .. wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to do all those things? I do have lots of dreams and I do plan to try my best to go after them… and if this blog survives, I’ll write about them definitely
thank you for always being so supportive teeni…
tc and stay well
kaylee - write that life list and see if it puts things in a different perspective! It definitely helped me - even if its temporary, I am sure every time I’m gonna see it, its going to remind me of this time and help to move forward…
I’m so glad you are writing about this and working through the grief. You don’t have to quit your job to go skydiving. There’s a great balloon festival in Albuquerque, NM every year…maybe you can make the one this year.
I just watched Evan Almighty and it was pretty funny…Morgan Freeman is in that one too.
I like Morgan Freeman, but haven’t seen Evan Almighty… I enjoy good classic funnies too… Writing this and sharing is helping for sure, it feels better to talk to the world about innermost fears and feelings than with family sometimes, its weird!
Pearl, I am very sorry to hear about your loss. Please take time to grieve, and I know you will come out stronger and wiser.
In fact, you already are. Facing our mortality is one of the hardest thing (I keep writing about it and never seem to end) and you are doing it — at your fresh age.
Akemi’s last blog post..How to Find What You Love to Do and Meant to Do, or Your Purpose of Life
Appreciate your kind words Akemi.. its one of the things we should never be encouraged to forget, regardless of the age!
Well now that you’ve written them all out, why can’t you do them anyway. Seriously, look at the list and pick 5 of them. I’ll do it for you:
1.start writing thank you letters to all the people who have influenced me in a positive way
2.go for sky diving lessons
3.paint, sing, smile and laugh more often
4.put a letter in a bottle and throw it in the Ocean
5.go for a safari in Africa
1. Pretty easy to start, probably hard to complete
2. Google a place nearby and sign up
3. Easy to do
4. Plan a trip to Cali this summer and do it
5. Research, see what it costs, save up, book it.
2008 goals done!
Ghillie Suits’s last blog post..Photos of the Ultra Light Ghillie Suit - Woodland
Losing someone is so painful.. especially if he/she will pass away and you don’t have the chance to talk to her/him again. So while you still have them, show to them how much you really love and value for having them in your life.
David Anderson’s last blog post..David J. Anderson- Senior Director For Software Engineering In Corbis
so true David.. we should make the best of today! thanks for stopping by .. hope you visit again!
Pearl -wishing you peace in your grief. What worked best for me when I lost someone close to me a few years ago, was to “let it be” not “let it go.” I was just present with whatever feeling was cycling through my body. And it definitely would come in cycles. And the cycles lengthened out over time where the sad times came less frequently. Best regards
K Stone’s last blog post..Life Doesn’t Have to Be Miserable!
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