Guest Author today – Stacey Hughes! You’ve seen her here at Life, for instance before. Stacey has just started her own blog! Recently, she made a comment here that captured my imagination and I asked her to do a Guest Post on it. We’re going to have fun with this one whether or not you ever have made…..a bucket list!

If you want your life to be a magnificent story,
then begin by realizing that you are the author
and everyday you have the opportunity to write a new page.
Mark Houlahan

You hear the term often…in movies, from friends…the ‘bucket list’…but do you have one yourself? Have you thought about what important things you would like to complete in your lifetime? Of course you have, that is how you planned your education, your career path, etc. but have you taken the time to recognize the other things big or small that may warrant a place on your bucket list? That special trip you want to take, the most amazing comedian or singer you want to hear in person?

I just took my youngest daughter to see the movie “New Years Eve”.  One of the story lines has Michelle Pfeiffer’s character quitting her job, and using tickets to a special masquerade ball to coerce Zac Effron’s character to help her complete her Bucket list by midnight. She had lived her entire life as the shy, quiet wallflower missing out on all she wants to do.  Fed up, she takes drastic measures, and gives herself (and Effron) an immediate deadline.

This story made me realize, that every time I see a film, or read about it in a book, I intend to make a bucket list. I want a bucket list. I have thought a lot about it. What would I include, what DID I want to do, after all, in my life?

Well that is a HARD question!

I have been trying to complete this list (that I really WANT to create) for a couple of weeks now and I am no further ahead.  What really is so important to me that I want to include it in a permanent list? Profound things like I want to help build a house with Habitat for Humanity or I want to take my daughters and work at the local soup kitchen to help the less fortunate.  Or simple things like; I want to take a trip overseas.  I feel as though I have writers block!

I have decided to do a variety of bucket lists.  I am going to do a short term one (perhaps for the summer, or 2012), and then a life one with the bigger stuff (and yes, I think help build a house for Habitat for Humanity will get on that list).

Do you have a bucket list? How did you come up with it? How do you manage/timeline it?

photo credit: Or Hiltch