I hadn’t heard of “bucket list” until I watched the movie of that name and at first I thought “am I too young to have a bucket list?” but then I went a bit further in wondering “why should a person have a bucket list” because isn’t the meaning of life to actually live your life and enjoy as much as possible without having to contemplate it as part of the death march?
I have lived a good part of my life with the thought “as soon as I can afford it I’m going to . . . “ or “when I retire I’m going to do that” or “if only . . . “ and these are goals that most people probably have. There is always a future time when it is going to be better to take up mountain climbing, hiking over rougher terrain, travelling to Morocco or taking up charcoal sketching. However, a bit of reality sank into me this summer when I woke up one morning with excruciating pain in the back of my left knee. I searched my mind for whatever activity I could have done the previous day to render this sort of pain but came up blank. After hobbling around for about three weeks I finally broke down and went to my former chiropractor who introduced himself to me as his way of reproaching me for not visiting more faithfully. As an aside, let me tell you about the wonders of yoga, which I took up 6 years ago and eliminated my need of chiropractic treatment for my back. However, yoga was not doing anything for this nasty pain in my knee, which was now creeping up the side of my leg and starting to affect my spine. As George told me immediately on my describing the pain “pinched sciatica nerve” visions of the nasty old man in one of Georgette Heyer’s murder mysteries came to me. Dear Lord, was I an old woman who was now doomed to bending over, clutching my back and moaning ‘oh my sciatica’? God forbid!
After countless visits to chiro, acupuncturist, masseuses and physiotherapists a colleague asked me if I would like to go to New York City. I first said no because I already had a trip planned for Ecuador in the new year but that night as I moaned my way into bed I thought it over and realized that I wasn’t getting any younger and by golly, I better say yes when someone offered me an adventure even if it hadn’t been on the “original agenda”. I realized that if I wanted to do any of the travelling I had dreamed about when I was a teenager and young woman I better start it now because if I waited any longer I might not be able to do all of the site seeing that I feel is very much a part of travelling. It’s not all about sitting on the beach and soaking up the sun, it’s also about seeing the museums, the ruins, the rain forest, the Andes mountains and whatever else is in the chosen spot. So “sciatica nerve” be damned, I am not letting you cramp my style (literally as well as figuratively)!
The pictures I wanted lined up on my bedside table, like Rose in “Titanic” are well on their way to being a reality.
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