Summer is fading away for us . . . only 1 week left. As usual it went by quickly, and yet there were many long “what should we do today” days as well.
When summer began, even before we found out we had to move, my kidlets and I made a list of things we hoped to do this summer. Of course we wanted to bum around and be lazy. But at the same time we wanted to experience things and have fun. I posted it on the fridge to make sure we would remember it.
Well, with summer almost over I looked at our list today. There were quite a few times that we totally forgot about our bucket list. Sometimes we were busy working, sometimes we were busy being lazy and loving it. I crossed off what we did get to do together. Each kid had a few projects they wanted to do. Luckily, we accomplished a few things. Not everything, but enough that I felt like we had tried.
I thought about this bucket list and realized it was a good thing to keep us doing fun things, but finishing it or NOT finishing it did not define how our summer went. There a million things not on that list that we did. Some fun and memorable. Some were just okay (like moving!). But no matter what, memories were made and life continues on.
I think it’s a lot like LIFE. We have things we want to accomplish. Sometimes they are things we think MUST happen to make our lives full. We need to live in the better neighborhood. We need to get the perfect job. We need to just get our child past a certain stage. And then our life will be complete . . . right? I’ve had many moments when life did not go the way I planned, and I have found that sometimes my life was BETTER. I followed my instinct instead of my list. I followed my heart instead of my plan.
So think about your summer. Did you check some things off your bucket list? Did you add things that were not planned at all? Did you have fun no matter how it happened? If yes, then relish in the memories as you watch the summer sunset fade in the distance as the autumn breezes come rolling in. Good times are still ahead.
