Wednesday 13 April 2016

Bucket list...

I don’t have a bucket list. It’s not that my life has been so exciting that there’s nothing left for me to do, but the idea of a(nother) bungee jump, meeting the Queen, playing football with any well known footballer, walking the Inca trail, or making an omelette for Jamie Oliver just doesn’t do it for me. In fact the longer and harder I think about it I find it hard to think of a single thing that I really desperately NEED to do before I kick the bucket.

Yes, you might say my bucket is empty or even has a hole in it (Dear Liza, dear Liza), but personally I don’t think I want a bucket or a list of any kind.

There was a time when I lived my life by lists. Tick lists, wish lists, lists of meetings, lists of places I had to go to, list of things I needed to do, lists of the lists I needed to make. A world of lists on my computer, in my book, on scraps of paper – lists, lists, lists, list, lists.

In many ways it was really comfortable. You see my lists took most of the uncertainty out of my life and with that uncertainty went some of the worry. There’s no time to worry when you are working to a list. You are on automatic, fulfilling the things you have programmed yourself to do and if you do it well then you go to bed each evening happy and at peace with yourself; secure in the knowledge that you have completed that particular day’s list - even if you achieved absolutely nothing and have another (almost identical) list for tomorrow.

Lists are like that, they give you the semblance that you are getting somewhere even though all you are doing is preparing another list and really not getting anywhere at all.

These days I still make lists but there are less of them and usually it really doesn’t matter if I complete them or not. It’s a nice place to be; not driven, no demands, no need to worry.

And I’m getting better at it.

9 comments:

  1. Tim Preston on FB
    I don't think it's up to you to say you're getting better at it, do you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew Height
      I guess I can say what I want, might not be true or it might. WTF knows?

      Delete
  2. Paul Whitehouse on FB
    Made a list, checking it twice!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gloria Brown on FB
    I make a list of jobs to do, then show hubby and tackle them together, a bit of a control freak!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew Height
      Ha ha, I wonder if you are on his list? wink emoticon

      Delete
  4. Gloria Brown on FB
    My wish list consists of walking on Hadrian's Wall shouldn't be too ambitious!

    Andrew Height
    You could do that next weekend and I think that you should. I have an ambition to see every painting remaining by Breugel. That could be my list I guess.

    Gloria Brown
    Oh that's splendid, I love the painting Children's Games

    Andrew Height
    When I was at John Hampden Primary a print of Breugel's 'Hunters in the Snow' hung on the classroom wall. I think that is what made me love art and hate maths. I spent most lesson's just looking at it.

    Gloria Brown
    Oh really, well if it was Mr Ennis that taught you maths!!

    Andrew Height
    This was in infants. I think it was Mrs Barrett's class. The one with the fire that made the playground wall hot so that you could warm your hands on it.

    Gloria Brown
    We are going to Malta on 26th April so planning on going to the museum in Valletta

    Andrew Height
    I think there's a Turner water colour in there. I like Turner a lot. When I go to museum galleries, with their portraits and religious scenes, I try to look past the subject and look at the painting technique. I always find it incredible that oil and turps and canvas can make such life at the hands of the artist brush. Just how did they make that skin look so real?

    Andrew Height
    Years of training and practice I guess.

    Andrew Height
    Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has a Bruegel gallery with a dozen or so of his paintings including 'Children's Games'. I need to go, but my wife doesn't get art. She does get wiener schnitzel though wink emoticon so I think I need to arrange a trip - just a short one. It can all be over tomorrow and if I don't see this paint and wood before I go I'll never rest xx

    Gloria Brown
    Yes, you must go!

    Tricia Kitt
    GO!

    Tricia Kitt
    Also take pics & share (life lived vicariously)

    Andrew Height
    At the moment I can't go very far as we are usually at the hospital. As soon as we see some change either way in Gaynor's mum we will. Or I will, whatever.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tricia Kitt on FB
    Why is lunch with me not on your list?

    ReplyDelete

  6. Neil Barrett on FB
    Me neither, a bucket list is too final. What if you don't finish it.
    Also it's somebody else's idea, I didn't think to do a bucket list until I read about it or watch the film with Jack Nicholson .
    Plus I'm easily distracted .

    Andrew Height
    Did you just make a list there? wink emoticon

    Neil Barrett
    sorry, what was that?

    Andrew Height
    List of things not to do smile emoticon

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anne Donaldson on FB
    Never made a list in my life and I ain't starting now. Life's too short x

    ReplyDelete