A Bucket List

Have you seen the movie the "Bucket List"? Two men played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson make a list of things they want to accomplish or experience before they die and they set out on an adventure of sorts trying to experience everything on their list. Good movie, not so great language at times, but generally I liked it.

A while back, a friend of mine invited me to start my own bucket list; without getting to philosophical I started my list (you can view it on my facebook page if you are even slightly interested) and the first item on my list is to "give away something very important to me." When I put that on my list, I had no idea what the "very important" thing was but imagined it to be an item of personal property - I'm wasn't even sure I owned it yet.

In July this scared young man came to our house and sat and squirmed in a chair in our living room pretending to be interested in whatever it was that was on the tv; Clint and I both knew why he was there but I decided to let him squirm for a little while. But because I'm a mother and I just love all children, I finally broke the ice and said "Jon, I'm going to extend my first act of grace to you - we know why you're here..." The rest is history. He proceeded to tell us how much he loved Taryn and that he wanted to ask her to marry him but first (oh my word, are there still young men who have enough respect to do this?) he wanted our permission to ask her to marry him.

So, on July 18, 2009, I will "give away" something that is very important to me - figuratively speaking, of course. As I thought about whether or not that qualified as giving something away I realized that it did indeed, because Taryn, along with my other kids, is of far more worth to me than anything I own, or could ever own. I know that I will still "have" her but our relationship will take on a new form and I will need to look at her as belonging to someone else - not in a possessive way but in a loving way.