Young people don’t have bucket lists.There’s just too much they want to do to bother making a list. Besides, young people are too busy with NOW to think much about TOMORROWS. They’ll also discover as they age, they could never imagine some of the stuff they’ll do, without it ever appearing on a list. Like this duck who never dreamed he'd swim with the flamingos, and ended up doing it without it being on his bucket list.

My bucket list is getting shorter (like that duck's legs), but it’s a good thing. I’m finding out, I cross off been-there-done-that stuff faster than I’m adding more to do.  

Then there are those desires that gradually fade in time. For example, I carried around a wish for fifty years that I’m “happily” crossing off my bucket list, not because I did it, but because now I don’t want to. With just a little thought I got to the bottom of why it’s been such a perennial desire. ADVERTISING & MARKETING!

When I got organized in the late seventies, I decided to keep it a secret from my husband, kids, parents and best friend. I’d read that when you want to make an important transitional change in your life, keep it to yourself and wait for “them” to come to you and say, “What’s happened to you?” or ”You seem happier and you’re always on time lately, what’s up?”

What I discovered by keeping my mouth shut on my plans was I had more energy! There was a certain excitement in “my secret.” Also, those closest to us have heard us talk about needing to change, wanting to change and planning to change, so to make a chronic announcement, “This year, I’m going to get organized,” “lose weight” or “budget and get out of debt,” your friends and family are liable to say, “Yeah, sure Martha, what’s new?”

I also think there is power in sharing your intentions with those who have the same goal. I’m so thankful for the platform I've been able to create so we can help each other and share our triumphs as well as our failings. I’m just talking about keeping it a secret from our loved ones, until the results start to show up.

Woah!!!!

Take some advice from an old lady; what goes down, must come up. I’m not talking about the “I fell down and I can’t get up,” commercial for some kind of alarm device, (although it’s probably a good thing to have when you’re old) I’m talking about stairs and hills.

I’ve been recovering from Grave’s disease for the last month and a half and my physical body has gotten happier and happier with the drug I’m taking. I’ve gone from, ‘oh, I’ve got to go downstairs to my office, which means I have to go back up later,’ to being thought-free on the stairs. I actually feel like my “old” old self and it’s wonderful!

Here’s what prompted this blog. I woke up frisky. It was a gorgeous day! 70 degrees. With fall in the air, I always get special prompts to get outside and soak up the start of the season. There was a breeze, and the leaves were starting to rustle in the wind more, because they’re drying out. Have you every noticed that? Green, summer leaves rustle too, but not like tired, old leaves that are ready to turn color and fly.

For two years, Jim, our next-door neighbor, has been working on his property that runs between our homes. He cut down lots of maple trees (they’re like weeds in the northwest) that were threatening our views and cleared trails down to the stream. We’d hear the chainsaw and the weed eater for hours. He turned a rugged ravine into a manicured park in two short years.

Every time we’d see him, we’d rave about how much work he’d done, how beautiful his property looked and how much our view had improved. He’d talk about all that he’d done that we couldn’t see from our vantage point.

Because of my health issues over the last two years, heart surgery, hip surgery, pacemaker implant and then the Graves disease (because of a drug I had to take for the heart problem), I could only visit his work in my imagination.

But on that beautiful day, I felt ready to go see what Jim had accomplished. I dragged Terry and Maggie with me! (Well Maggie didn’t’ get dragged, she was thrilled with the whole adventure.)

Three steps to hook up! HAH!

I don’t know about you, but I’m technically impeded. I can’t say it’s a genetic issue as my parents didn’t have to submit themselves to this technological torture by having to read instructions that are translated from Chinese to English by some 19-year-old anti-American Communist.