A good bucket list makes you want to live

I have a bucket list.

A few items in my bucket are: own a cabin out west, write two books, hike the Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail, run a marathon in Alaska, and travel the country speaking to churches about the importance of meaningful relationships. (I'm sure you just spit your morning coffee out on that one - I get it ..... 😮).

Here's the thing - these aren't things I feel panicked to get done today in case I die tomorrow. These are things I feel lucky enough to get out of bed as early as possible and tackle today.

More and more. I'm realizing the power in dreams isn't found in the dream come true - it's found in the dreaming itself. Without dreaming there is no doing. Without doing - well, there is no living.

I confess - I haven't always been a big fan of bucket lists.

What point is a big list of things people put into the world - many of which never happen. Many times, a bucket list looks like a list of things people wish they'd already done - a list of things maybe they regret they'll never be able to do.

Trust me, my bucket has a bit of both in it.

But now I know it's not so much WHAT is in your bucket that makes a good list, but HOW badly you want to get out of bed today and dive into your bucket. A good bucket list isn't a list of things you'll actually get done, it's a list of things that actually makes you feel like doing.

It's a list of things that makes you want to be alive.

We've gone crazy in this world about eating right, exercising, taking your vitamins, getting plenty of sleep - ALL helpful things indeed to keep us alive - many of which I embrace.

But really, is there anything more helpful in keeping us alive then actually WANTING to be alive!? Is there anything more helpful in waking us for the morning light than our dreams of what we'll do with that light?

Much of what I write here in the mornings will end up in one of those two books that are on my bucket list. There are many nights I wake up in the middle of the night dreaming about what I'll write in the morning. It's often a battle to do that "getting plenty of sleep" thing.

Not because writing two books is on my bucket list.

But because I LOVE what is in my bucket.

What's in your bucket. What makes YOU want to be alive??