Thursday, January 13, 2011

What's On Your Bucket List?

We had our women's meeting (the Relief Society) at Church tonight. The theme of this meeting is one that has been on my mind since last year. I wanted to do a lesson on making sure our affairs were in order. We make sure our meetings are centered around a scripture and I felt inspired to use this one. We don't know when our time or our spouses or children's time to leave this earth will come. Like most people I have many experiences in our family of members dying early. It's not a pleasant topic, but we need to be prepared. If we're prepared "We need not fear". Also those left behind need to know what we want to happen, how we want our "stuff" taken care of, and if we can't tell anyone because of being incapacitated in some way, how we want our medical issues handled. I also wanted us to think about what we want to do while we're alive and kicking! Write down some things to accomplish in this life. As the song says..."live like you are dying!" That's where our bucket lists come in!
I invited our good friend Greg G.to come and give us some good advice about wills, living wills, instructions on what every family should have prepared in case of a sudden death, or illness of either spouse, or yourself if you live alone. Making sure your wishes and instructions are written down so the task of "taking care of things" after we die is easier and things done just the way you would want them. I have some work to do to put some items in order. I was really happy to get the info! Now to get to work!
When Greg finished his talk about what every person needs to do to make sure all their ducks are in order, we talked about "bucket lists". We read the blog of a young lady who has terminal cancer and read her list. We watched a video from the movie, "The Bucket List". Then I handed out the cute little buckets shown here with a blank card in it and had everyone start to write down some things they would put on their lists. It's a personal thing. We didn't read each others because it's really only important to us. Hopefully we can all start to put lines through some tasks that we want to accomplish. Good fun things too I hope!
After the meeting everyone sat around for a bit chit-chatting and going to get snacks set up in the other room. I was pleased at our turnout considering the weather hasn't been too great and we are a small branch of the Church. I think many important questions were asked, answered, and the wheels turning in our heads about being prepared not only if something bad happens, but how to enjoy living. So lets get out a piece of paper and write out that list...the bucket list. Things to do before we "kick the bucket"...things to do to have a happier life..things to do to enjoy our families...things to do to forgive hurts where needed...so, I ask, what's on your bucket list?

8 comments:

Mrs Catch said...

We all need to consider this. It's such an important issue. My husband and I have to revise our wills this year. This is just the hurry-along I needed!

Stacy said...

Thank you for working so hard on this. I know I needed to here it. It is amazing what following the scout motto "be prepared" can lead to. I felt like you made everyone think...even the ones who didn't come.

Donna said...

Great idea and listening to your tell about what you were going to do and seeing what you did is fun as it turned out WONDERFULLY!! Not only is it a good idea to prepare, but it was cute too with buckets and lists and snacks!! I'm sure Greg was a good speaker and interesting to listen to...sounds like a successful night!!

Karen Whittal said...

I have this movie but have never watched it, will definitely watch it this weekend. My news years resolution was to get my affairs in order, love the idea of the buckets, can I steal it for a tea i am giving in Feb??

Susan Anderson said...

What a great activity! I'm going to suggest it to our RS President.

As for my bucket list, most of mine has to do with traveling that I haven't done. The next thing I hope to do is go on an Alaskan cruise.

=)

Rosaria Williams said...

A great reminder to get our house in order, including getting our priorities straight.

Darlene said...

Wow! I'll bet that was an interesting R.S. lesson. I'll also bet that you are a very good teacher. I can see that you put in a lot of time on this one.

Thank heavens we have our estate all planned out, thanks to the attorney that Sue used to work with. That is a great relief and it gives us a sense of peace.

As for "bucket lists", I think it is important to make plans to do some of the things we want to do before it is too late. I wish that we had traveled more. Dick loves to travel, but it seems like we were always too busy, or we would put it off. That is my big regret, because now, unfortunately, I just don't have the stamina. Darn!!

Deb Shucka said...

This sounds like it was a really cool meeting. I love the idea of providing cute little buckets. The movie was wonderful.

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