The Bucket List

by Jo Robertson

There’s a Rob Reiner movie out this holiday season in which the characters – terminally-ill patients in a health-care facility – make a list of the things they want to do before they die.

They call it the BUCKET LIST because, well, they’re ready to kick the bucket.

I’ve been thinking about that concept recently and asked myself, what haven’t I done that I’d REALLY like to do before I die? I've been lucky, so there's not much left.

I wanted to have a career – teaching – a happy marriage and a family. Mission accomplished. I've traveled and lived in a foreign country.

I was fortunate enough to “have it all,” although certainly not at the same time! I'm a firm believer in doing everything, just not at once :-D!

But I made a Bucket List anyway.

These are things I'd love to do before I kick the bucket!

1. See my book in print -- my name, my real name on an actual book cover so I could salivate over the luxurious art work and show it off to all my friends and family.

This could still happen. Maybe. I hope.

2. Bungee jump -- not from Bloukrans River Bridge in South Africa, a height of over 700 feet, but from the Golden Gate Bridge, far enough up that I’d feel the thrill of tumbling down, down, down and then being caught and cradled by that great rubber band while I watched the beautiful San Francisco Bay and the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Yeah, like they’d ever let me do that. But still . . .

3. Tap dance -- a la Gene Kelly – with style and rhythm and panache.

This is a big-deal item on my list because I have absolutely no sense of rhythm or coordination in my body. Still, in my head I'm as graceful as Anna Pavlova.

4. Compose a musical tribute to my grandchildren and play it on the guitar -- Mind, I know about three chords and never got the knack of hardening my fingertips!

Oh, and with the strumming, there’s that whole rhythm thing I was born without.

5. Care for a new-born baby again -- I’d like once more – just one more time – to feel the sweet, sweaty weight of an infant's body on my chest. I imagine Annalise's plump softness with such poignant memory.

I do love the babies. And this could happen! Maybe.

The New Year is right around the corner. The sound of 2008 has a certain promising ring to it, don’t you think? I see baby New Year dressed in a diaper, toddling toward us with all his ripe promise, and crickety Old Year hobbling off toward the horizon.

Welcome, 2008!! I have a good feeling about you!

In the spirit of resolutions and new beginnings, of derring-do and untried adventure, what would you write on your Bucket List, readers?

List five things you want to do before YOU kick the bucket!

Be sure to stop by on January 1 for my interview with western historical writer Stacey Kayne, who's giving away TWO of her books!