Nothing about this trip was on my bucket list: a windows factory? a glass plant? And definitely not flying in a tiny plane.
What I've decided is that bucket lists are too limiting. They're like those books on 200 places to see before you die. Frankly, and I say it with great love for the area, I don't feel that floating in the Great Salt Lake was one of the high points of my life so far. But I remember a fall day when I was coming out of the library at the University of Utah, and a chance wind caught the leaves of a tree below. The leaves all let loose at once, and a golden shower flew up into the sky.
The wonderful moments are the unexpected ones that come, perhaps, when you're at a place you've been hundreds of times before but see in a new way.
Or when you try something (like that plane ride) you could have sworn would have left you in a literal puddle of fear. And it turns out to be a beautiful, peaceful experience.
Or when your eyes are opened to a different way of life that you would never choose but are glad to see people enjoying. Would I want to live in a company town? Not Warroad. Not Redmond. But I appreciate having seen them.
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2 comments:
The most mundane moments are definitely the most memorable--watching the trees leaf out in the spring, the shapes of the maple trees around our house in NE Pennsylvania, talking to my grandson in the middle of the night as we rocked when he wouldn't go to sleep and his mom was exhausted. The soothing fountain outside that library at the U of U.
What a wonderful post. Sometimes the most beautiful moments in life are the most unexpected.
I heard you were going to Utah this July. What great news!!
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