The Bucket List

A Bucket List is a container for your dreams. It reflects your desires, needs, and a deeper calling. The making of a bucket list is an opportunity to take stock of where we have been, who we are, and where we want to go next. It also means releasing any regrets, loss, and grief to create room for inspiration, vision, and contribution.

Here is my bucket list, a work-in-progress that requires more clarity of the shape of what I actually what to do. Some of these require skilling up. Some of these I need/want to do alone and for others, I would love company. Some may change, due to environmental, ecological, and other factors.

• • Rafting on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I’ve visited the rim and taken a day tour with my dad into native lands. Time to see this amazing place from another perspective.
  • Horseback ride through the plains of Patagonia & Mongolia.
  • See the Northern Lights in the Yukon, Northern Norway, and/or Iceland
  • Do a writing residency somewhere remote
  • Volunteer at an elephant sanctuary
  • Walk the Camino
  • Learn/try falconry. Inspired by Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk.
  • Hike in Moab, Utah
  • Stargaze & flamingo-watch at the Atacama Desert in Chile. This is the world’s highest desert. Travel through Chile.
  • Visit the salt flats of Bolivia
  • Iona, Scotland
  • The Inca Trail at Machu Picchu, Lake Tititicaca
  • Explore Jaipur India
  • Jordan & Israel
  • The Emerald Isle & Avalon
  • Volunteer time and skills for women empowerment initiatives
  • Re-read Wuthering Heights and do a walking tour of the moors
  • Volunteering at the Modisa Wildlife Project (Botswana) – I interviewed one of the founders, Valentin Gruener for It’s All Well + Good Magazine I published for several years

And the peace which I always found in the silence and emptiness of the moors filled me utterly.
James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small

• Island hop in the Caribbean
• Get close with the wilderness in the Galápagos, Serengeti, and …
• Take six months to a year off and live on the road with my animals
• Check out the UNESCO Heritage Site and figure out which ones to visit
• Do a road trip from Vancouver to Calgary, taking time in all the beautiful places in between and get to know beautiful BC
• Drive all the way across Canada
• Other road trips – Pacific Coast, the Silk Road, Span & Portugal …
• See a total eclipse in full view
• Spend a summer chasing crop-circles
• A silent retreat
• Parts of the world I haven’t been and want to see (and not listed separately already) – Russia, Mongolia, Africa, South America …

So, this is my first Bucket List for travelling and I’ll be updating this list over time. What are the most amazing places you’ve been? I’d love suggestions of what to see, where to stay, when to go, what to eat …