And figured it would be hot enough to make a batch of sun tea, to have iced, very ladylike, with my newly baked hot biscuits with sunflower seeds in them,
to be spooned over with blueberry sauce of some kind, not yet made.
The tea will probably be ready tomorrow, if I remember how this is done. No rush. It's summer..
Reading a lot as well as all the other stuff that goes down chez Boud, and I'm noticing too many refs to bucket lists. I really object to this, oh oh, here comes a hobbyhorse from the paddock, neighing and prancing and ready for me to jump right up.
For one thing it tries to make a game of dying, and older people see little to laugh about there (!) and it makes life into some sort of exercise in list making, frantically crossing things off before you go, as if any of us every know when that will be. Can't help thinking it's a kind of Facebook mentality, or Instagramming to the nth degree, sounds a bit sad, really. I know people who are fine with it, good for them, really, but I find it works against the notion of allowing life to come in, rather than grabbing at it.
But, since I always like to seek balance sooner or later, before I fall off my horse completely, it is nice to look back and be really glad of the things that you took a risk and actually did, even if they didn't always work out just as planned.
Like learning the violin at age 47, and being encouraged by six year olds who were a year ahead of me. And playing in an actual orchestra a couple of years later.
And taking a big risk and entering art in juried shows. And accepting invitations to do solo shows, this is a very fear inducing thing, but so glad I did.
And creating workshops of a kind I'd never seen, to teach other adults to be fearless the same way, in art. And following the mantra: when it doubt try everything! Likewise, you don't have to know everything in order to move forward. You'll learn as you go. In fact, this is how art works, as well as a lot of other things in life.
Okay, horse is slowing down now, good boy, old Paint, off you go back to the paddock to tell the others what she's banging on about this time..
Which is mainly, it's nice to live without feeling you need to list and plan your life ahead of time! Life plans are great when you're very young, I had one in my twenties. Nothing in it transpired, but a lot of much better stuff actually happened. So there's that.
There's an organizing and planning industry, and good luck to them, but I can't help feeling their keenest clients are people who might do better to just hang loose a bit. Observe the Shakuhachi effect.
Off to tea now.
I agree, one can plan out one's life too stringently, and have no room left over for um living. And those folks who can't move without a list in each hand are left wanting when something unsuspected crops up or leaps across their path.
ReplyDeleteI've learned to look ahead, but not plan ahead except with it's time to order wood for the winter or how much paint to buy for the kitchen walls. Beyond that, it's always a surprise.
I found the concept of bucket list intriguing. Sure, we never know when we're going to pop off, that's a fact. But I remember my father planning a trip to my house when he absolutely was not able to make the journey. I said as much to him, and he replied, "Let me dream." That was something on his bucket list, I guess. Also on his list was getting to know his adult children better, and he made great efforts during the last years of his life to do that. He also planted primroses and a lilac bush that year--knowing he would probably not live to see them bloom, but both were something he'd always wanted to do. I also have things I plan to do/see before I am unable to do so. I have listened to friends who say, "I always wanted to do that, but it's too late now." So I try to plan ahead for those things. I do not want to end with regrets for what I let pass by. Bucket list? I suppose it is.
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