Wednesday, June 19, 2013

A Life Half Lived...

Today is my birthday. I am now 45 years old.



With the life expectancy getting closer and closer to 90 these days, I have only lived half my life so far. I can choose to look at that as half my life is past or that I have half to live yet. Since I am more of a glass half full girl, instead of a glass half empty, I am going to look at all the exciting possibilities ahead.

Last year I made a list of 44 Things that I wanted to accomplish while I was 44 years old. I came up a bit short, but I found some of them weren't that important as the year went along. Some of them the circumstances just didn't work out right. I got 26 out of the 44 Things crossed off my list.

This year I making a smaller but broader range list, some are left over from last year's list and some are new. A Bucket List for the second half of my exciting life.

BUCKET LIST
  • Watch a Sunrise
  • Continue to improve my photography and writing skills through the platform of my blog(s).
  • Visit more National Parks (I have been to nine so far, I will be adding 2 more this summer)
  • Finish visiting the other 14 Ottawa County Parks that I haven't been to yet.
  • Spend a whole summer on the Leelanau Peninsula
  • More wine tasting adventures with Glen, this is one of my favorite things to do together
  • Europe - Scotland and Ireland, revisit England and France's Normandy region
  • Facetime or Skype or visit in person with more of my blogging friends
  • Go away by myself for a couple of days to take pictures and write. This could be a yearly adventure
  • Tenting - if this year's trip goes well, I would love for Glen and I to do more of this kind of traveling, with some hotels thrown in for a good sleep and clean up
  • Be the Grandma to my future grandchildren that I wished I had been able to have
  • Visit Disney World many more times
  • Continue working out and keeping my body healthy and strong
  • Maybe...learn to play golf
  • Dabble more in mixed media art

If I thought about it long enough I am sure that could up with a ton more things.
It is very interesting looking at this list, I see myself becoming exactly who I want to be. This might be the clearest definition of myself that I have ever had: someone who loves to travel, photograph, write, be active and healthy, spend time with her family, learn new things and continue to build wonderful, new friendships. I might finally be able to write that "About Me" page for my blog.

12 comments:

Viv@Thoughts from the Desktop said...

Happy Birthday my friend I hope you have a great time, love your bucket list, mixed media and Skyping a great idea.....

Karen Lakis said...

Happy Birthday!! A bucket list is such a good idea. Now I'm thinking of things to make one for my birthday in August. It looks as though you have lots of travel ahead of you this year. I hope your birthday is lots of fun!

Becs said...

Happy birthday! Great list. Let me know if you're coming over to England and then you can cross meeting up with a blog buddy off your list too. ;) I wrote my 'about me' page recently (doing Susannah's course) - it took me 2 years to get round to, but I feel like it was worth waiting because it really sounds/feels like me....looking forward to seeing yours. Have a great day (and year!). :)

Carol said...

Happy birthday! I look forward to reading about each item on your list, as you complete each one.

Helen said...

Happy birthday! Hope you come to england soon!!

Helen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Angela said...

Happy Birthday---I'm further along than you, but the bucket lists definitely help to keep things focused. Enjoy the year as if you are jumping in with both paisley boots!

Ahayes1225 said...

Happy Birthday! You look wonderful, sounds like a great bucket list.

Naomi said...

The photo of you is gorgeous! You look pleased and relaxed with yourself, and that is beautiful. Surely we are allowed to reevaluate our lists as we go, right?

Cathy H. said...

I hope you had a wonderful birthday! This was my 60th birthday, so I guess I'm 2/3 along! I love the idea of a bucket list. I can see some interesting blog posts coming up as you mark them off!

Unknown said...

A great bucket list! I like how you made the list smaller and broader and less about accomplishing a certain number. I'm happy to help you meet the Skype goal!

Unknown said...

A belated Happy Birthday Sarah!

I continue to enjoy the posts about all your adventures - big and small - and your thoughts, dreams...it's great to get to know you.

xoxo