Things to do before I die

First, we got some real rain today - 0.8"!

I'm going to use Leroy Siever's blog for today as my starting point for today. He mentions the title of a book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die. He says he looks at such lists differently since his cancer diagnosis. Most people would list climbing Mount Everest (definitely NOT on my list), or running a marathon (also not on my list).

But think for a minute about places you would like to see, or things you would like to do before you die. When you're young and have your whole life ahead of you, your list would probably be completely different from what it would be as you age, or are facing a life-threatening illness.

I never in a million years could have imagined that we would have traveled to so many places, and done what we've done. And we've not seen a lot of the traditional "great places". We've never seen the Eiffel Tower, or the Great Wall of China, or Stonehenge, or the Coliseum, or the pyramids, or the Parthenon. We've never seen elephants or lions in the wild. At least not yet.

But we have seen Machu Picchu, the Galapagos, the Ring of Brodgar, the Hermitage Museum, Chaco Canyon, and Mesa Verde. We've been to Antarctica and been up close and personal with penguins. We've been to Alaska and seen more bald eagles than we could count. We've seen polar bears and black bears and grizzly bears. I've petted a gray whale. We've been two of a handful of spectators at a dawn balloon rise at the Valley of the Gods in Utah.

But more than that, we've managed to be married for almost 52 years. We've raised four gorgeous daughters, who have brought us three special sons-in-law, and six fantastic grandchildren. We have made some pretty incredible friendships over the years. We're getting ready to go to the beach to be with our family and friends - just for the sheer joy of it.

I will quote from Leroy Sievers' list of things to do, because he says it better than I ever could: "Laughing at something that's really funny. Coming up with just the right line at just the right time. Shedding tears for the right reasons. Sending flowers for no reason at all. Giving someone the perfect present. Seeing the joy in someone else's eyes when they give you the perfect present. Sharing a special meal, savoring a good glass of wine. Letting the sound of waves take you away.

We all have our own lists. We judge our lives in our own ways, have our own definitions of success. There are still a lot of things I want to do before I die, but not very many of them are on those other lists."

Today's picture is of the balloons at Valley of the Gods, UT.