Day Nineteen – What’s on My Bucket List?

I am a huge list-maker.  Looking at my desk right now you will find my “To Do” list.  My to-do list doesn’t have deadlines.  It is just the things I need to accomplish soon, like answering emails, changing the wall in front of my desk, working on my spreadsheet of countries, practicing my flag challenge, and so on.

I keep a list of books I have read.  This is mostly done, through Goodreads but I also have a written list of books that have had an impact on me.  I also keep a list of books I want to read.  Again, mostly on Goodreads, but also a physical list that supersedes the Goodreads list.

In one of my journals, I keep a list of words I like. It was a thirty-day challenge of a word a day.  I also keep a written list of words or phrases I like, some are English some are Polish, and some are from other languages. For instance, “Dolce Far Niente” ~ Italian for the sweetness of doing nothing.   One of my favorite Polish words is “chrząszcz” and it means beetle.  I recommend putting it in google translate to hear the pronunciation.

Another favorite from Polish is the word for winter – “Zima”.  There is however a story behind this word.  Back in my younger days, there was a popular malt beverage that was introduced in 1993 by Coors.  It was marketed as an alternative to beer and I loved it.  As some of you may remember, it was called Zima.  Then there are some English words/phrases which have gotten lost in translations.  My kids in China called a home aquarium a “fish house” and they called an aquarium that you go to visit a “Water Zoo”.  Believe it or not, many languages don’t have separate words for fingers and toes.  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the word “foot finger”.

In my journal, I keep a list of quotes.  It also started as a thirty-day challenge, but I am constantly adding to it.  My journal lists go on and on.  I have a list of Chinese spices, herbs, etc., that I consider essential in my kitchen.  I have a list of things I love about Paris.  I have a thirty-day thirty-songs list.  There is a list of countries I have visited and another with UNESCO sites I have seen.  I have a list that is just called “foodstuff” and a list of gins I have tried.  I think you get the picture.

Now, let’s get to the subject at hand….a bucket list… a list of things that I haven’t done before but I want to do before I die.  Of all the lists I keep, would you believe, I don’t have a written bucket list and I have never made one?  I have a few ideas in my head but nothing on paper.  Some of the most popular items on bucket lists have to do with travel.  From way back when, for me, that would have been Paris, the Great Wall of China, and the Pyramids.  I have nothing pressing on my travel list because lately I get an idea and I just go.  But don’t worry, for the sake of this blog I will come up with a couple of places.

Here goes:  Wendy’s Bucket List

1. Be able to identify all the flags of the World
2. Name all the capitals of every country
3. Set foot on one more continent (I have North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa)
4. Visit China and Bali again
5. When back in Warren, Ohio I want to tell my story to young people and encourage them to take that gap year or at least travel somewhere different from what they are used to
6. Visit Azerbaijan and at least 3 “Stan” countries
7. Do a WorkAway in India
8. Continue to understand my purpose for existing and fulfill it
9. When in India, visit Dharamshala (where the Dalai Lama lives) and try to be in one of his audiences
10. Not only tell my story but write it

I have written diaries and journaled most of my life.  I started my first blog on MySpace.  When I moved to Paris I started “Down the Rabbit Hole.”  Unfortunately, it was lost when I didn’t maintain my domain.  I started “Down the Rabbit Hole” again in February 2017 and have been pretty faithful for seven years.  Of the ten items I listed above, numbers five and ten are the most important to me. For a long time, I have felt that my PFE (purpose for existing) has been to tell my story. Not just from my years traveling, but also my life story as I know that experiences in my childhood have impacted my life today.  Everything I was is intertwined with who I am now and how I face whatever life puts in my path.  It’s been an amazing ride and it’s not over.  One thing I hope I have been able to share with my blog and one day in a book is how many beautiful, kind, people there are in the world and what they have taught me.   Maybe someday, someone will have seen something through my eyes and it will encourage them to follow their dreams.