FORT WORTH, Tx. January 14, 2012 — January is almost half over. It reminds me of that old adage, “The older you get the faster time goes.” It’s hokey but it’s true. This reminds me that at this late date I still haven’t gotten around to writing my 2012 Top Ten List or resolutions for the New Year.

This agenda goes a step further, however, than listing goals for the next twelve months. The two are combined. 

Here is my current top ten Bucket List that I resolve to complete during my lifetime. Or at least give them the old college try. The goal is to start fulfilling some of them this year.

When going for the gold you might as well dream big. Items on one’s Bucket List should not be run-of-the-mill, average hopes and dreams. Include things that seem out of reach. If you stretch enough you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish if you don’t give up.

Now, in no particular order:

1.) Finish the novel that I started during NaNoWriMo, have it published, and then become a best-seller. In the works is a story with an old-fashioned plot-line but it is set with a modern twist unlike most.

2.) Rent an island. There are several companies like Private Islands Online that rent these retreats on lakes, seas and oceans all over the world. As expensive as it sounds that is not always the case. Some go for as little as $2000 a week. That’s comparable to what you’d pay for a decent hotel room. And if a group of friends or family members go together the cost can be split several different ways.

3.) Panama Canal Cruise. Sailing through this modern marvel would be an amazing experience. It takes eight hours to go from the Pacific to the Atlantic and vice versa. While in South America I’d also visit Machu Picchu on my way to the next ambition.  

4.) Antarctic Cruise. I’d love to take my kids to Antarctica. There are cruises one can take from the southern tip of South America. Some are day trips, some last days and weeks. We all know people that have been to Europe or the South Pacific – be one of only a handful of people to visit the actual bottom of the world.             

5.)Sleigh Ride. Don’t laugh. After the previous goals this probably seems lame. For me it’s not that easy though. Texas is home and the only sleighs here include wheels and no snow. It’s called a hayride. As a former Chicagoan I’ll take snow and the cold over hundred degree heat any day of the week. Besides, sleigh rides remind me of the romantic sleigh ride scene in one of my favorite movies, Christmas in Connecticut starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan. 

6.) 1959 Corvette. I saw Animal House in the theaters when it first came out back in 1978. My friend Mariaelana and I got in the “R” rated movie only because we got someone to buy the tickets for us. One of the main characters was Otter, played by Tim Matheson. Otter drove a 1960 or 1961 red Corvette. I had never seen that era of these classic Chevy sports cars before that time and it was love at first sight. My fourteen-year-old self resolved to own one someday. Don’t have one yet ~ but I will along with the Harley Davidson Heritage Softail Classic I plan to ride as well. 

7.) 50^th Anniversary Trip. Communities writer Julia Goralka and I will celebrate our fifty-year anniversary in January 2016. She and her family moved on our block in early 1966 when she was twenty-two months old and I was seventeen months old. Our mothers were best friends and we played together as babies, little girls, and young ladies. Now we’re middle-aged and can enjoy menopause together too. We are planning a trip to Bora Bora in Tahiti where we will rent an island if at all possible. Fifty years is a long time for any relationship. It’s been a fabulous one for us and we are looking forward to many more. There are already plans in the works for Halloween 2064 – our one-hundredth. We plan to go dressed as Playboy Bunnies.

8.) Cross-country drive. This will start in Maine traveling south along the eastern seaboard all the way down to Florida and north again traveling almost to Canada, turn around and head south again, driving north to south, south to north, all the while moving west and hitting everyone of the lower forty-eight states. Once in Washington State drive on up through Canada all the way to Alaska. Then take a cruise to Hawaii on the last leg of the journey. I have no idea how long it will take or how much it will cost but it will surely be an adventure.

9.) To sail in a Chinese junk off the coast of Hong Kong. Movies take you many places and Soldier of Fortune takes the viewer to Hong Kong and Macau on the South China Sea. It starred Clark Gable and Susan Hayward. The photographic shots taken for this movie are magnificent.  

10.) Live close to mountains and ocean. Having spent my entire life in the mid-west I was twenty-one before I saw a mountain for the first time in Honolulu, Hawaii. The first salt-water I ever saw was the Gulf of Mexico at Panama City, Florida when I turned twenty. It was also love at first sight for me for both of these beautiful wonders of nature and I will live close to both of them someday soon.

Honorable Mentions:

1.) Visit the Isle of Capri off the coast of Naples, Italy. The first awe-inspiring photography I ever saw of the little island refuge was in the movie It Started in Naples with Clark Gable and Sophia Loren. The view from the top of Capri overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea is breathtaking.

2.) Take a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru. Hiram Bingham discovered this ancient and mysterious Inca fortress in 1911 and introduced the “Old Peak” to the modern world. Machu Picchu is Quechua meaning “Old Peak.”

3.)  Visit the countries my grandparents and great-grandparents came from. On the paternal side my dad’s parents came from Joppolo Giancaxio and Comitini, Sicily. My maternal grandmother was born in Nuneaton, England. And my maternal grandpa’s parents were born in Jonkoping and Bjuv, Sweden. That will be quite a trip.

There is no sense in dreaming if you do not dream big. Keep your resolutions even if you can’t do them until next year, or the year after that – no matter how long it takes. That way there will always be something to look forward to.

Don’t forget to add more items to your agenda throughout your life.

Completing an entire list in a lifetime may not happen but if you do not try you will not accomplish anything at all. Go ahead. Reach for the moon as well as the stars. Don’t listen to those who try to rain on your parade.

Read more of Claire’s work at Feed The Mind, Nourish The Soul in the Communities at The Washington Times, her blog Sustenance For The Mind, and the writing group she belongs to at Greater Fort Worth Writers Group.

 Join her on Facebook at facebook.com/Claire0803 and Twitter http://twitter.com/Claire0803

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