My Leaky Bucket List

(If any youngsters accidentally stumble upon this blog, a 'bucket list' is a list of things you plan to do before you 'kick the bucket.' I'm not sure if the term is still used.)

It dawns on me that I'm never going to travel to the places on my 'bucket list.' As the years add up, some things that used to sound awesome... don't now. For example:

• Back in the day I yearned to live on a sailboat and continually explore new places.
• Then there was the dream of backpacking through Europe, staying at youth hostels, and going everyplace a Eurail pass could take me. There was some myth going around that one could spend a day or two picking grapes to make enough money to journey on to the next place. Probably untrue.
• Another wish was for a suntan/sunscreen concession at a Polynesian resort on a white-sand beach. From there I could live happily ever after in my little grass shack, saving tourists' skins and impressing the world with my killer tan. (Appropriate adjective, eh?)

Such dreams are for the young and strong, who still look good in swimwear and don't mind lack of laundry facilities, or picking fleas out of their hair, or all the other stuff that goes with 'traveling light' and living hand-to-mouth.

These days I'll have to sing, "Let it Go" to a few other travel dreams. There are too many obstacles ranging from personal all the way to financial and political:

• The pyramids will have to do without me. The situation in Egypt is no joke, and when people say, "Don't go there," it sounds like really good advice.
• I have 4 needy cats, no spare money, and a hubby who does not travel well. Clearly I won't get to live in Paris for a year. I won't be taking my sketchbook and my notebook to the Louvre for creative inspiration. No breaking for lunch at streetside crepe stands.
• A photo safari in Africa seems inadvisable because of unrest and ebola. The air in China sounds unsafe for someone with asthma and 'secondhand-smoke' lung issues, so getting to the Great Wall might not be so great. Visiting the Great Barrier Reef would only generate frustration because polluters are killing it.

As someone older and wiser, I see that travel needs to give way on my bucket list to more possible list items. Then it dawns on me. I never made a bucket list! I've had things in the back of my mind that I'd like to do, but it's never been formalized.

I feel so much better. Without some dratted list to fret about, I can concentrate on what's possible.  Publishing a book? Learning Spanish? Learning to play an instrument? There are endless possibilities. My bucket runneth over.