“Under an old brass paperweight,
my list of things to do today...” Whenever I hear of people writing out their
bucket lists, I think of this song. Call me a human jukebox if you want too but
this old Toby Keith song has some truth to it.
This year, I have accomplished
three goals off of my bucket list already and I am going for a fourth. Granted,
those goals were smaller but in their own way each of them was very important
to me. What goals are on my bucket list? Well, I’m glad you asked but before I
tell you I want to ask you this question: What goals are on your bucket list? I
would love to hear them all so just leave me a comment here on the blog or if
you are my Facebook friend leave a comment on the post about the goals on your
bucket list.
With that being said, here are my
top 20 (yes I have more than 20) goals on my bucket list in no particular
order. The ones that have one asterisk * are the ones I have accomplished this
year-those that have two ** are the ones I have accomplished in years past:
To be a church piano player
To watch every movie starring Gene Kelly (13 down and
almost 30 to go!)
To sing a special in church*
To hear and meet Brian Free*
To go to a Southern Gospel concert*
To hear and meet Straight No Chaser (I have tickets
for their concert in November so I can’t claim this one yet)
To see a Broadway play**
To see the Phantom of the Opera in NYC
To go skydiving (Little worried about this one)
To be recorded singing**
To sing a solo in church
To backpack across Europe
To dance with my husband in the rain
To learn how to tap dance
To buy my bridal gown at Kleinfeld’s (This one may
never come true. Those gowns are expensive!!!)
To take a road trip through the USA
To drive a Lamborghini
To read my Bible in a year
To work with my husband
To be a part of a traveling singing group
Well, there you have it-my bucket
list. I’m looking forward to hearing your goals I hope in some way that I have
inspired you to create a bucket list if you don’t have one. Until next time, I
leave you with the quote of the post: “Here is a test to find whether your
mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.”~ Richard Bach
P.S. I stole this idea from a
friend. Sorry friend I stole this idea from. I hope you like mine!! Also, the
next post will be about comedic teams. Look for it soon!
It was just another normal Tuesday morning. My brother and I were home schooled and we had just started working on our schoolwork (at least I was, I’m not sure about my brother) when my Dad called and he told my Mom to turn on the TV. I remember it vividly as she called us over, turned the TV on, and there waiting for us to see was a building on fire. “Nothing out of the ordinary, it probably was an accident” the anchormen said. The skeptical person I was thought “Oh boy, they will be talking about this little fire for weeks.” I assumed (like the rest of the world) that everything would be ok. I knew that a few people had died but it couldn’t be anything major. Nothing could ever prepare me for the sight that came next. A plane slammed into the second building and a ball of fire followed by a cloud of smoke and papers filled the air.
“It was another plane!!” the anchormen said “Another plane has hit the WorldTradeCenter tower!! This has to be an attack!” I was shocked. “What was going on?” I thought. It seemed so deliberate and I knew that the pilot was aiming for that tower. Why would an American pilot do this? I at first assumed it was a military plane. Then they replayed the footage and instead of a military plane, I saw a passenger plane. I convinced myself that it was empty. It just had to be. No one in their right mind would fly a jet plane filled with people into a building, right? I was wrong and as we later found out the pilots were not in their right mind. My mom shut the TV off and told us to get back to our schoolwork. I wanted to sit and watch out of natural curiosity and Mom said no. I don’t know why she turned it off, maybe she knew the gravity of the situation and didn’t want us to see it. Later, she turned the TV back on and discovered the Pentagon had been hit. The anchormen then broke the story of United Flight 93. My heart soared when I heard the news that the Americans had fought these despicable terrorists. I was never so proud of a group of people I had never heard of. “We Americans always fight back!!” I thought. The news footage cut to a smoking field in PA with a huge hole. The plane had crashed but the terrorists had lost. People had died on that flight but who knows how many lives were saved by their heroism.
I never really understood the overall gravity of the 9-11 until I saw a picture like this. It still haunts me to this day. I opened up the Sunday paper and like a tsunami, the fear and anger washed over me. Just a word of warning, it’s not graphic but can be very disturbing.
The situation was so desperate that this poor man decided that he would rather die by jumping then burning to death. My heart rose to my throat and I could not believe what was happened. What would I do if I was in that situation? Would I jump? To this day, I cannot answer that question and I hope I never will have to.
Later that day, my family held a prayer meeting at our house. We were all concerned about our Uncle John who worked in NYC. We got the phone call later that day from his daughter Liz that he was okay. Thank God! Others were not so lucky--almost 3,000 innocent people died that day. For the days and weeks after the attacks, pictures of the burning rubble, ash covered fire trucks, and people crying were displayed. Heroic stories of firefighters, policemen, and normal everyday people were told. Flags, signs, and pictures of loved ones filled the streets of NYC. Songs were written about patriotism like the Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue by Toby Keith or Have You Forgotten by Darryl Worley. One song that says it all is Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?”
This song takes me back to the place when my world changed forever. To this day if you ask any American over the age 20 if they remember 9-11, they get a little misty-eyed and can tell you verbatim the place where they saw it all happen. Though I would never have wished that this attack had taken place, it united Americans for the first time in a very long time. Patriotism became more than just waiving a flag and saying God Bless America. It was real and alive.
I will never ever forget 9-11 and as I have matured and grown, I have come to realize not only what hurt those attacks caused but what bravery and courageousness it resulted out of them. I was watching a documentary that told the story of the American Airlines plane that hit the 2nd tower. One mother said, “Every time I watch the footage of that plane going into the building, I’m watching my son die.” How do you deal with that? I don’t know and hope to God that I never know. I was watching another documentary that painted the story of 2 men that died in the WorldTradeCenter because they put others first and saved over 70 lives. Remember the firefighters and police men that went into the burning buildings carrying over 50lbs of equipment to try and save people? What about the ones that gave up of their time and dedicated themselves to the clean-up effort? These men were ordinary people who did extraordinary things.
On that note, I end with this question and a quote. The question: If you were in that situation, do you know where you would go? Would you go to Heaven? If not, here is a link to show you so that you know for sure, you are going to Heaven: http://www.northcolumbusbaptist.org/715339
The quote is from President George W. Bush on December 11, 2001 only 3 months after the attack “Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning, it’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend-even a friend whose name it never knew.”
