Every time that I look in the mirror, all these lines in my face getting clearer. The past is gone….dream on, dream on, dream until your dreams come true.
What’s on Your Bucket List?
Posted by: Jane Jelenko | Posted in: Always Enough Time, Being creative, Living Intentionally, Too Many Choices, Jane's MusingsSunday, June 08, 2008
Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars. Let me know what Spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.
Life is a Buffet
Years ago, I started keeping a file in my desk where I saved clippings and notes of ideas for things I might do someday. All kinds of things. Some were just for fun, like taking fencing lessons at the local “Y”, or going to the Korean day spa downtown, or checking out the architecture walking tours offered by the L.A. Conservancy.
Other ideas had loftier purposes, like getting a Masters in Judaic studies or teaching Math to girls in middle school.Some of these ideas made it out from my desk files and into real life experience, though some are still in there getting dog-eared and a little musty.
During my transition from working professional to midlife explorer, I found this idea file a useful resource for overcoming one of the hardest challenges we face as we enter retirement—turning off the auto pilot as we described in Changing Lanes. By experiencing new things, we can break out of the daily routines and static mental state that often prevent us from envisioning a new life. We become better prepared to make good career and life choices when are brains are more agile and open to new ideas.
While similar to The Bucket List in last year’s film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, my list doesn’t focus on all the things I wish to do before I die. Mine is not a dream fulfillment list. As such, it doesn’t contain things like visiting the Taj Mahal or the pyramids, trekking in the Himalayas, skydiving, and the like.
Instead, I have selected things that are more immediately accessible, both in terms of time and money. When I no longer had to live by a workday schedule, I suddenly had the time to indulge myself in an orgy of delicious taste tests—little nibbles of stimulating life experience—the purpose of which was to get my mojo going again. To reawaken my 
curiosity and give the creative side of my brain some room to breathe.
For some time, I felt as though I had lost an important part of me through the normal process of maturing and years of focusing on getting ahead. I was living smaller than I wished to be, especially given my sense of life being very, very short. I wanted to get back to a more spontaneously joyful state. Anyone who has played with a baby knows what I mean. When babies laugh, they laugh with their whole bodies. Every limb jiggles with unbridled happiness. Inevitably, as babies grow up, our expression of joy diminishes, first limiting the laugh to the face, then covering our mouths with the hand, as though we might offend by showing too much joy.
As a mature adult, I want to break out of that diminished state. To quote my brother, “life is a buffet,” and I don’t want to limit myself to tuna sandwiches when there are chocolate treats set out for the tasting.
So my bucket list includes a weekly Torah class with ten women of equally curious minds, performing dance numbers in the SHARE Boomtown gala fundraiser, taking a family 
roots trip with my brother and sister-in-law to Poland, and enjoying twice daily walks with my dog in my beautiful canyon. All these activities feed my soul and open me up to new possibilities.
So what’s on your bucket list ?
Share your list and how it has helped open you up to the forces of serendipity. Have you discovered a new road you didn’t expect to follow? Has it helped ease your midlife transition process? We and our readers would love to hear from you.
