End of Times?? Make a bucket list.

A good friend of mine is convinced that the world is nearing the end of times. This is a topic that she and I differ on. I come at it from my knowledge of history, sociology, world events, and even world religions and I'm not quite sure where she's coming at it from. I think online bible study and her family. Who is right? Who is wrong? More to the point, what constitutes "near?" Near in our terms would be within our lifetime. But near in terms of history can mean within a century, or within five centuries, or even within a millennium. And in God's terms? It can be infanitum, since according to what I've heard and read, there is no "time" in heaven.

But to each of us going through a midlife crisis or an emptying nest syndrome or whatever anyone would like to use as the label for what people our age are going through--we're facing our own personal end of times. Suddenly we realize the fact of our own mortality. It's not waaaaaaaaaaay out there somewhere, it's within some thirty years. Thirty years might have seemed like an eternity when we were in the single digits, but now that we've lived over forty years, it's not that far away anymore. How to prepare? How to proceed? How to assess the quality of our lives and accomplish what we'd like to accomplish before we no longer can do those things comfortably anymore. Some of us don't have the choice. We plod along, get to work in the morning, do the chores and the laundry and the yard work in the evenings and weekends. So busy caught up in the routine and the careful saving and investing that there's no room for the "what if" or "what should I?" conversation. But many of us devoted most of our lives to one thing or another. To either work, or to our children, and are facing a big shift right now. Lay-offs, kids leaving the home, even marriages ending. Having to relocate for a job, having to figure out what to do next. That's where I'm at. What do I do next? I can't let things sit the way they are right now. There must be something more. I have more I want to do. And I'm not dead yet!

I haven't seen the movie The Bucket List, and I don't want to. (I don't want to cry and I know how it ends.) But what I am doing is creating my own bucket list and crossing off each item as I accomplish it. The goal is to include my family in it as much as possible so that it multiplies the quality of each action or accomplishment. Get my BA, (check). Drive as much of the original route 66 with as much of my family & friends as possible (scheduled--see http://profile.myspace.com/456544193). Play the last chord in a rock band with an electric guitar and jump in the air as it ends (planned) etc. You get the idea. Well my idea is to face the next thirty odd years with my list in hand and focus on what I still want to accomplish, and the fun I still want to have with my family, and instead of wishing it to happen, making it happen. One step at a time.

What are your goals? What's on your bucket list?

This editorial is originally from my blog at: http://soupseedsnest.blogspot.com/