Do you have a bucket list?  A mental check list of things you want to do? Dreams, wishes, day dreams, hopes?

I think everyone does.  But I think sometimes people put even their day dreams on hold.  It is the nature of life.

Of course when I think about dreams, even the word evokes my favorite Langston Hughes poem (which I have loved since about the 4th grade):

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

I guess it is easy to take life for granted. I did once upon a time. Then my father died.  Then my brother-in-law died in between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2010.  Then in 2011 about this time of year I was diagnosed and began treatment for breast cancer.

Those events changed the game for me.  I started to take chances (not risks, chances – there is a difference) on what I really wanted to do.  For example my writing and photography. In that area I have had many professional by lines in the past couple of years and look forward to more.  It helps that my amazing better half supports my dreams.  But then again, to be truly loved is one of the most amazing gifts human beings can give to one and other.

Another thing on my bucket list was to ride in a hot air balloon.  My friends Barry and Teri made that possible on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in September 2012.  I will never forget that ride, and wow does a balloon ride made you feel free.

What else do I want to do? A lot.  I would love to in my most Walter Mitty of dreams be part of a cooking show or any of the flea marketing, junking, picking shows.  I can cook and have a good, natural eye when it comes to fun antiques, collectibles, and adaptive re-uses. I would also love to write about those things professionally for a print or online publication.

So a week ago a friend of mine posted on their Facebook page that the Food Network was auditioning for their show “Chopped”.  I figured what they heck and applied as an amateur home cook.  I will probably never get chosen, but it sure was fun to apply!

I think the thing about life is to not be afraid of it.  That’s hard.

Some people can’t handle the Technicolor of life.  This past weekend I learned the sad news that someone I was no longer friends with but had been friends with for many years of my life had passed away. It was an odd feeling.

It was someone who I had not been in touch with for years because our lives went different places with different people yet when I heard the news I was genuinely sad.  But on the other hand, how to process this news?  After all I don’t want to be a death hypocrite – you know those people who are almost like professional mourners – but wow, this death kind of hit me right in the gut for a while. It was like a door banged shut on childhood and young adult memories in a most final way.

It made me think about things again and realize life is too short not to live it to the best degree possible. Carpe Diem people! Life waits for no one.

And that includes bucket lists.  So what is on your bucket list?  Tell me!