Fast approaching is my 59th birthday and I know the sequence of counting numbers well enough to say that after 59 always comes 60. Earlier this summer I started to fret about that a bit. The idea of being 6 decades old just kind of gave me that proverbial "smack in the face". 60? What happened to being 40? Shoot, what happened to being 55?
Life continues on and on and with the blessing of being alive comes the reality of being older. You can fret about it all you want. It's gonna happen if you wake up each day. I have to be honest here when I say that I didn't just stew over getting older for a moment or two and then go on. I thought about it quite a while, actually off and on all summer. But somehow or another, a few weeks back, I decided that since the inevitable happens sooner or later, why not embrace it? Why not throw wide open your arms and say,
"Hello "age 60"! I've been looking for you. I thought you might never find me :)"
And so it shall go for me. A little kid born in 1955. The sixth child of seven. One who is just like her Grandma Scott. One who says that they are not afraid to die but surely still loves living.
When I turned 49, now ten years back, I came up with a list called "Peggy's list of 50 things to do before she turns 50". It was filled with all kinds of fun things to do as I reminded myself that just because we get older, life doesn't end. In many ways it truly just begins. I found that out in the past decade and most surely can verify it to be true. I went back to look at that list and found out that I had done everything I set out to with the exception of a couple of things. Figured that was a pretty good track record for someone who had never really entertained the notion of having a bucket list. As the years went by, I actually did develop a list of things that I wanted to do and I've accomplished all of those as well. So now, here I am, fast approaching the next decade of life here on the great planet Earth. Why not think of 60 things this time? Well, all right then. I did.
So here they are, in no particular order of importance, my list of 60 things to do before I turn 60. I was going to wait until my birthday later on in the fall but realizing how fragile and brief things can be in all of our lives, I thought it best to get a bit of a jump start. I'll be sure to let you know how things go. Heck, some of you may even be able to help me with a few of them.
What kind of exciting and fun things do you wish to do before your next birthday dear friends and family? The possibilities are indeed endless. Make a list and try some! You won't regret it if you do. You might regret it if you don't.
Figuring to get busy on the list pretty dang soon. The next 442 days will pass by quickly. "Time" flies when you are living life.
60 things to do before I turn 60~
Deadline Day~October 26, 2015
"On your mark, get set, now GO!"
1. Try acupuncture to see if it really does help aches and pains and whatever else ails me.
2. Take a hot air balloon ride, just once.
3. Design my own grave marker, complete with a peace symbol.
4. Visit the site near Silver Plume, Colorado where the WSU football team's plane crashed in 1970 and leave flowers at their memorial.
5. Buy a good book, read it and then pass it on to another person each month.
6. Actually GO to Utah.
7. Go power-parachuting once again back home near Hutchinson, Kansas.
8. Document the most beautiful sunrise and sunset, one time each month.
9. Save a dollar bill every day until my birthday next year and refuse to spend them until then. No matter what! Then do something that will make a difference for someone else with it.
10.Convince zinnias to grow from seed here in the clay-filled soil of south western Colorado.
11.Discover the "secret to life" before I die.
12.Go whitewater rafting in the Colorado River.
13.Camp in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
14.Walk across the swinging bridge once more in the Harvey County East Park back home in Kansas.
15.Go to the city park in my hometown of Haven, Kansas and just sit there to enjoy a nice visit with friend(s).
16.Stop to meet and visit all the good people who helped our good friend Norman Horn with a place to stay for the night as he came through western and south central Kansas.
17.Learn how to scrapbook.
18.Finally get all of my pictures organized and off the computer and my cellphone.
19.Have another great Scott Family Reunion.
20.Ride a combine once again during a Kansas wheat harvest.
21.Make a difference in the life of a child somewhere.
22.Carry someone else's burden for a while to give them a break.
23.Eat some garlic salad at Doc's Steakhouse in Wichita once more. If you haven't tried it you don't know what you are missing friends.
24.Travel over the big mountain in wintertime and not be afraid to get out and inhale some of that crisp and cold 14,000 feet + air.
25.Try sewing another pair of pillowcases once again.
26.See my dear and sweet little granddaughter once again. Be with my children as much as I can.
27.Figure out how to worry less and enjoy life more.
28.See a concert somewhere. Remember life when I was younger.
29.Try something totally new to me. Be brave.
30.Go back and walk through the Laurel Cemetery near my hometown of Haven. Spend time amongst the graves of people who meant so much to me when I was a kid there growing up.
31.Do something for no good reason at all.
32.Write a letter to someone. Really write it. You know, with a pen and a stamp?
33.Go to Manhattan Baptist Church back home in the Flint Hills of Kansas and listen to my good friend Dennis Ulrey preach the word and maybe even sit right there on the front row.
34.Go to Gander Mountain in Wichita, Kansas and buy something, even if it's not on sale.
35.Downsize, downsize, downsize.
36.Continue working on a photo album I started back in 2011 by finding all of my Facebook friends, buying them something to drink and sitting down with them to talk about life. I've only got 200 more to go. I can do it!
37.Stay healthy.
38.See the Dakotas once again. The land of my father. Visit Mount Rushmore.
39.Learn how to make something from scratch that I would normally have to buy.
40.Find a really good deal on an airline ticket.
41.Find an equally good deal on a rental car, for a change :)
42.Think more about what is really important in life and spend less time worrying about things that can't be changed by me anyway.
43.Throw "caution to the wind" and buy $20 worth of hot tea bags at the Spice Merchant in Wichita rather than just the usual $10 worth.
44.Ride down Kansas Avenue in Haven, KS in a golf cart with my good friend Sylvia Davis driving it and my other good friend Dennis Ulrey hanging on for dear life. It can happen. Just wait and see :)
45.Learn how to bowl better. To actually beat my good husband Mike once. Just once. That would be enough for me.
46.To see my family once again back home.
47.To do something kind of crazy with my sister-in-law Paula that doesn't involve the taking of dancing lessons with total strangers. (and she will know what I mean)
48.To maybe raise a few chickens.
49.Find a way to be a hospice volunteer.
50.To not take myself and life so seriously all the time.
51.To do as Morgan Freeman's character "Carter" did in the "Bucket List" by helping a total stranger for the good.
52.Love myself way more than I do.
53.To find peace in whatever life deals me.
54.To continue to teach and make a difference wherever I might be needed.
55.Organize, organize, organize.
56.Keep better track of my cell phone, glasses, and car keys.
57.See my nieces and nephews that I haven't seen in forever.
58.Take one day to volunteer to do something that I have never done before.
59.Enjoy life. Enjoy life. Enjoy life.
60.Remember always the One who made me.
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