The first item on my bucket list is to fill the bucket with wine. The second is to drink it.
Several years ago, I went to a casual home wine tasting with a close friend. There were mostly women of our age (“a certain age”), and after the official, “what is it” tasting and analysis, we enjoyed the noshes, the remaining wine, and the great conversation.
One woman’s comments stood out to me. She indicated that her bucket list was empty because she had already done everything that she wanted to do. Therefore, there was nothing hanging out there ready to be tackled. She had traveled, enjoyed other cultures, worked at her dream job, etc. Everything anyone could want.
At first, I was envious. “How nice it must feel,” I said to myself, “to have everything you ever wanted to do, done.”
However, it didn’t take long for that envy to be gone. Totally. That same lady said that her only regret was that her relationship with her children was badly strained because they resented her always being gone and galivanting about with apparently little care for their needs. They felt neglected and, according to her, “hated” her for it. Ouch.
What is a Bucket List? Really.
I realized that a bucket list is always a goal that is filled with things to strive for. Like the proverbial fishes and bread, it’s never-ending. It’s also unique to each person.
For instance, my friend who took me to the wine tasting fulfilled a lifelong wish of visiting Egypt in order to enjoy the museums, the food, and the pyramids, which she did right after she retired. Unfortunately, she arrived just in time for the Arab Spring uprising, but still…
Another friend, a woman I’d worked with for fifteen years, retired, and 18 months later, died from complications from elective surgery. That painful shock taught me that a long lifespan is not a guarantee.
I said all that to say this: it’s okay to still have stuff in your bucket list, no matter how old you are, or even if you think that you’ve done it all. You haven’t. If you think you have, then you are running out of imagination and dreams.
So what does that have to do with Vegas Wineaux?
Now that I’m sauntering towards the end of my tenure at The Day Job™, I have found that my somewhat exhausted fountains of imagination and wishes are suddenly flowing again. I am approaching my next life plans with enthusiasm and a laundry list of expectations. There are changes afoot, and I’m incredibly eager to get those changes launched.
The first visible thing will be this website, Vegas Wineaux. I’m redesigning the logo – not drastically – and the overall look and feel of everything. Now that we’ve arrived in the lofty world of thousands of monthly hits, I am branching out into new adventures, and I can’t wait to share. I talked about this much more in-depth on an earlier post but wanted to link it positively with my plans for the future.
From the evening of Thursday, August 30, through Sunday afternoon, September 2 – or Monday, depending on “real life” – this website will be completely shut down for maintenance and renovations. It will be the first peek into what’s going to be my great expectations (apologies to Mr. Dickens) for the future, the next chapter of my life.
I hope that you stick around for the reveal!
One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.
