Someday

“Gazing outward into the light.”
Ani Gurnee

So what’s all this bucket list business we hear about? You’re familiar with the idiom kicking the bucket, with regards to dying? A bucket list refers to the same bucket only prior to kicking it. Where does the list come in? Think of it as what you would like to experience someday before you die. It is not related whatsoever to your day-to-day list of things to do. In other words, you would not see scrubbing toilets or vacuuming on your bucket list – at least I hope not; but whatever rocks your bucket!

With that, have you reviewed your bucket list lately? I’ve never really thought of having a bucket list per se, but I do know there are things I would like to experience someday. As time passes, the things I thought I might have wanted to do or see have changed, but what hasn’t changed are the following:

• Aurora borealis or northern lights – I would like the trip itself to be an event, just in case the lights don’t quite dance across the sky in a major way when I am in the vicinity. With that, the trip will someday be along the coast of Norway from Bergen to Kirkenes - twelve days and thirty-four ports of call on a Hurtigruten freight/passenger ship. They have been traveling these waters since 1893, so if anyone knows how to hunt the light, they do.
• International hot air balloon fiesta, Albuquerque, New Mexico – Someday I'll see the balloon glow take flight in the early morning hours and punctuate the darkness of the night sky. With over 500 balloons taking to the sky, it is the world’s largest ballooning event and has been held the first week of October for over 40 years.
• International fireworks competition, Vancouver, BC – It’s been held the last week of July for 25 years and is the longest running offshore fireworks competition. Because it is a competition from 3 different countries each year, someday it will prove to be a breathtaking site with each country competing to be the best party in the sky.

My someday arrived last July when I checked-off the first of my bucket list items by observing fireflies, lightening bugs, in North Carolina. It was on the way home from seeing those fairies of the night that I contemplated the other things I have longed talked about doing someday; and like a flash, I discovered they all had something to do with light. Without realizing it, I had longed to infuse my life with more light! Ever since then, whenever I consider my bucket, I feel a warm glow come over me. I don’t know why I hadn’t made that connection previously, but I’m glad I finally connected the lights. I see the light now and my bucket is full of it – light, that is. What’s in your bucket? Shouldn't you start making someday today and rock your bucket?

Northern lights Tromso photo courtesy of Gunnar Hildonen