Live for Today

Okay, so the Today Show is doing this series on what to do before you die. They've compiled a list based on viewer response of the top 50 things people want to do before they die.

I have a list too. I call it my Someday List.

Someday I'll own a house.
Someday I'll travel the world.
Someday I'll date again.

You get the picture.

My someday list is long - much longer than 50 things - and I begin to wonder if maybe I'm not pursuing what's on the list aggressively enough. How does one go about checking things OFF the list? I mean, let's consider the limitations.

Unlike the Today Show - I don't have an unending supply of MONEY to do most of the things on my list (such as travel and buy a house). I don't have control over my career in the sense that I can't cast myself in whatever I please. I don't have control over my love life because I can't force somebody to like me (and I refuse to be somebody I'm not in order to get them to like me). Do I sound pessimistic? Self-defeatist?

Actually, I'm not. If I were, I would have thrown out the someday list a long time ago! I'm an optimist and believe I will be able to put check marks next to a lot of items. Sometimes, it's fun to look at the things I HAVE done.

I have traveled - more than many. I have been to England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico and easily half the states in the continental US.
I have worked as an actor - and though I haven't performed on Broadway, I have made people laugh, cry, and think.
I have loved - and lost - twice. No shame in that.
I have been to college. I have been to graduate school.
I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.
I have climbed Pikes Peak.
I have hiked the Grand Canyon.
I have explored the ruins of Tulum.
I have skied - both snow and water.
I have learned to sail - and capsize - and turtle - and recover - a small sailboat (the Wiggin family will now comment).
I have snorkeled a barrier reef off Key West.
I have ridden a horse and a motorcycle.
I have roller-bladed and ice-skated.
And so on and so forth.

Some of the things I have done don't seem like much to probably most of your reading this . . . but I've had so many more opportunities than so many people . . . I have to recognize them as such.

I have run a marathon. I have run five.

HUH? Is that really on the list? Well . . . it's on the Today Show's list!

And I'm now preparing to run my sixth. And guess what - in the process I get to check more things off my list! Hawaii. Checking out a volcano. Surfing. Para-sailing. A whole slew of adventures thought of and not.

I'm definitely living for today.