Not gonna kick the bucket any time soon...

Recently, a friend's mother in law passed away after a short (few months) battle with cancer. I asked how her husband was doing and she seemed to think he was fine. He processes things internally, goes through an inner dialogue and moves on and is fine. I hope he is, but almost 15 years after my mother's early death, I'm still not over it.  But I am glad I am not over.  I hope I'm never over the fact that my mom is gone and that her death has left me forever changed.

Partially checked off the bucket list. Still need to come back in 5 years to raft the Colorado with the kids!

There are a lot of things about my life and the way I act that I state as a product of her death. Somethings I'm working on, like courage to take opportunities and the ability to know when they are handed to me and when I have to create them on my own. Regardless of whether or not her death is the reason, I constantly use it as a reminder to myself that we are all mortal and I have to make the best of what's around. Some days are bettter than others.

If I am to pass along into the next life at the same timing, (which I'm not planning) that means that I have 10 years to go. And I have a bucket list of things that I want to accomplish before. This is always changing in priority, but mostly just growing as there is so much out there.

Of course there are on going goals, like raise my kids to be mindful, caring citizens of the planet. That will never be checked off the list. It will be ongoing until the end of time. Only their great great grand children and their actions will account for that. There are things though, that I can check off and completed and here are some of them....

Painted desert. Amazing.

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details.

1. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
2. Spend a year in El Salvador on Elmer's family's farm
3.Create and live in a completely sustainable, affordable, off the grid home in an urban area
4.Start my own sewing business
5.Learn to cook healthier meals that my kids will eat (should this really be a bucket list item? geez, I'm that bad!)
6.Write a book
7.Be at least tri-lingual enough to be able to communicate in both Spanish and French with native speakers that don't speak English.
8. Hike the Appalachian trail in one shot.
9. Travel to Tibet
10. Be a foster parent
11. Be able to grow 75% of my food (meat included)
12. Watch my grandchildren get married
13.Travel through India
14. Create art everyday
15.Learn to surf

I think I could go on. It's such a good motivator to put the ideas down. First steps in getting them accomplished!

So as I look back over this. I think about the "check".  I wanted to say that I checked the Painted Desert off my list. But, I didn't like the thought of that. Made me feel like I didn't need to go back. Kind of want to go back. But at least I've been. Totally worth it.