~from the other side of the mountain as the day now begins~

     So, a couple of blog posts back I posted a list of 60 things to do before I turn 60 coming up soon in October of 2015.  To look at it now it seems a respectable list of things to do with none of them being all that very much consuming in time, money, or effort.  Initially I wanted to wait until my official "birthday" on the 26th but decided that since so many of them involve other people or places, I needed to get a head start on it all and so I did.

     This past Sunday I went bowling with Mike because item #45, the one that reads "to learn how to bowl better and to actually beat my good husband Mike one time", seemed like a fair enough place on the list to begin.  After finishing 3 games and soundly losing all of them, it was apparent that I have quite a ways to go to believe I can do that one.  The opponent in this case is a formidable one and even with getting used to a brand new bowling ball and having just gotten over some back problems, Mike always managed to stay ahead of me in each and every frame we bowled.  That's ok.  It's a warmup for me.  An opportunity to get better all the time.  I press onward :)

     One of the items (#8) reminds me to continue to capture pictures of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets of each month.  You know that was one of my original bucket list items, back in the days of living in Hutchinson.  It was the strangest of things for me to think of because in all of my years of living (and there have been now nearly 59 of them) I never really cared all that much about taking photos of them.  Oh sure, I've probably said from to time that a certain "dawning of a new day" or "setting of the evening sun" was pretty but never felt compelled to run and get my camera before it was too late to capture the image.  But something changed in me after I had my accident in 2011 and I began to realize just how special these times of day were to me.  I sit at the kitchen table, here at home along the Western Slopes and wait in the mornings to see the sun come up over the Black Canyon and the mountains near where we live.  I love to see the rosy glow that illuminates the mountainous terrain around Montrose County.  At night I have been known to "chase the setting sun" as I grab a camera and head to the best vantage point to snap a picture or two or 12.  The time goes quickly as the sun sinks lower into the horizon and just a minute or two either way makes all the difference.  I found that out once again last evening as I noticed how beautiful the western sky was at sunset.  Luckily I had my phone in my pocket and snapped a quick picture before the sun was any lower. The sunrises and sunsets of each day remind me of the brevity of life itself, how quickly it all passes by us without our even really being to able to realize it.  It's a sobering thought, one that used to scare me but now one that I am most thankful for.  It's a "wake up" call for me, a person who used to take for granted every day that I had to be here on this planet Earth.

     And then, well then there is item #5 that admonishes me to buy a good book each month, read it and then pass it along to someone else to enjoy.  I got a great start on that one just yesterday as I purchased a couple of books at school through one of the local vendors who leaves a nice display in our school's office area for the staff to look through.  One of them, "Lists to Live By" is a compilation of lists to do most anything by, well at least over 200 "anythings".  It has what I like in a book  and I enjoy its conciseness and the sense or "order" that it conveys to the reader.  I already know who I am passing this one along to when I am finished.  The other book, "Traveling Light~A Journal" is by perhaps my favorite of inspirational authors, Max Lucado   This one provides a wonderful daily devotional that the reader can go through in a 4-week period of time.  There is also a great space for the writing down of thoughts as they relate to whatever the the message was for the day.  It is my hope that this can be a "traveling" book of sorts and that the person I send it to will in turn send it to another person at the end of their month.  This one already has its new owner in mind as well.  Sharing the gift of a good book and I learned it from all the wonderful teachers that I had as a kid growing up in Kansas.

     Well, so there you have it.  The goal to attain a harmless list of 60 things has begun.  I love life and I pray to never waste a day of it.  I want each day that passes by to be remembered by me as the true gift of time that it really is.  We never know how much time we will have been allotted here or which birthday shall be our last one.  I haven't even made it to 59 yet and perhaps it is presumptuous on my part to believe that I will see 60.  But I surely pray so to do and yet if not, then to at least have lived my days here most fully.  That's the goal of this Kansas farmer's daughter.  A child of the flatlands and now a woman who is of the mountains.  Who would have ever thought it?  Surely not me :)

Photos from the Bike Across Kansas in June of 2011~what got this whole Bucket List/Blogpost idea started in the first place :)

The starting line at the Kansas/Colorado border, just 16 miles of the western Kansas town of Tribune.  Little did I know that in just 2 years more I'd be living here.

My wonderful friends, Shelly and Clint Rodriguez, fellow teachers back home in Kansas and bike riding companions that year.

Day two, Scott City~temperatures were about 100 with an equal to greater amount of humidity.  The winds came at us at whatever direction we were headed.  I will never forget that.  One of the last photos I have that shows "old lefty" before the accident.  It was a good and strong arm before everything happened and I give thanks that it is usable and still attached today :)