Tag: travel

MY “UN-BUCKET LIST”

On By nrfaughtLeave a comment

Do you have a “bucket list”? A bucket list is a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime. Have you seen the 2007 movie “The Bucket List”? The movie is called The Bucket List, a 2007 comedy-drama starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The film follows two terminally ill men who decide to complete a list of things they want to do before they “kick the bucket,” embarking on a road trip of a lifetime. The two men, a wealthy businessman and a mechanic, meet in a hospital cancer ward. After their diagnosis, they team up to fulfill their shared wish list, which includes traveling, skydiving, and other adventures.

So, do you have a bucket list? My wife loves to travel. Her bucket list includes an Italy cooking school, a Mediterranean cruise, Niagara Falls, etc. I don’t have a bucket list. I don’t like to travel. I enjoy watching youtube videos about foreign places, especially those in the tropics. That’s more than enough for me and a lot less stress than traveling, catching flights, etc. I have recurring nightmares that I am in a foreign country and it’s an hour before our return flight but I can’t get transportation to the airport. I wake up all stressed out!

I guess it’s good that the Lord has kinda forced me to travel some. We did mission work in Trinidad, West Indies and Colombia, South America and I would never have gone there if not for mission work-and it was some of the best years of my ministry. I went with my wife to Italy b/c she wanted me to-I did get to see the place where Paul was in prison in Rome and I saw volcano ravished Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius. We’ve been to Honduras, Ecuador, Vancouver (the Butchart Gardens) on short mission trips and that was good. We did great family trips to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. All those are places that I never would have gone to if not for Lord or family pushing me to go. So my bucket list was kinda given to me by God or family, but it’s places I’m glad I went to.

But what’s on my “un-bucket list”? I just made that up so I was surprised to find that an un-bucket list is a real thing. AI: An un-bucket list is a list of things you have decided not to do (or do again), either because you have already experienced them or because you have consciously chosen to avoid them.” That’s places I’ve traveled to and have said that I will never go there again in my lifetime. Atlanta, for example. We crossed Atlanta to go to Stone Mountain. That traffic in Atlanta! I will never go to Atlanta again. If the Lord told me to go do mission work in Atlanta, which is almost due East of our home, I would head due west toward San Diego! Like Jonah. I would not go by land not boat for obvious reasons! Another place on my un-bucket list would now be Dollywood. Our whole family of 18 just went there and had a great time in a great cabin. Fun, fun, fun. My grandkids even pushed me to ride the Wild Eagle and Barnstormer, which I will refuse to ever do again b/c I am afraid of heights and roller coasters that do 4 upside down loops. Then there was the traffic in Chattanooga and Knoxville. Horrible, brutal. If the Lord told me to head north to do mission work in Chattanooga or Knoxville I would head south to Florida instead. Then there’s Chicago. One of our daughters decides to get her masters in Chicago instead of Tuscaloosa. She stays for 2 years in Chicago, living 8 miles from downtown Chicago. So we drive to Chicago to visit her. Traffic is terrible and its windy and cold. It takes 2 hours by car (b/c of the horrible traffic) to drive those 8 miles to where she was working as a waitress that first year. So instead you leave your car and you walk 15 minutes to catch the “L” (the elevated rapid transport system), ride 30 minutes on the L, and then walk 15 minutes to get to her place of work. She would work till midnight, walk 15 minutes to catch a bus, switch to another bus, and then after about 45 minutes of bus rides she walks 15 minutes to her apartment in all kind of bad weather (and yet she loved Chicago). All that to get to a place 8 miles away. I can get in my car here in Huntsville and drive 8 miles in 10 minutes and be at work! Chicago is on the un-bucket list.

That’s enough I guess. What’s on your “un-bucket list”? Places you went to but have pledged to never go there again for the rest of your life. Were those places worth it, looking back,however? Probably so. Dollywood was a great family memory in spite of the traffic. Millennium Park and Navy Pier in Chicago with our daughter. The Summit Skyride to the top of Stone Mountain.

I don’t even know why I’m writing such a dumb blog about my un-bucket list. I think I’m still in shock and internal anger b/c of sitting for 2 extra hours almost stopped dead still on interstates for crying out loud (on I-24 and I-75)! Sorry I wasted your time reading this if anyone happens to actually read this blog to this final point!

THANKSGIVING 2024

On By nrfaughtLeave a comment

I love that!

THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE

Think of all the people you love. Then think of all the people who love you! My parents loved me, but never expressed it verbally or with hugs. My mom spent a major part of her life putting my needs ahead of her needs (pretty much spoiling me!). My dad worked 50 hrs/wk to provide for me: he took me fishing a lot and watched every baseball game I ever played in. But neither said “I love you” or hugged until my dad was 72 and was given 2 years to live (lung disease). Both said “I love you” a lot more after that. I still struggle with loving her b/c I am so selfish, and I struggled with showing emotion. My poor wife has lived with that for 54 years now. Unfortunately I am like the old man whose old wife asked him why he never tells her that he loves her. He told her, “Woman, I told you I loved the night we got married; I’ll let you know if I change my mind”. You’ve heard that one, huh? I do try to express love and hug, but it is still difficult. I’m thankful that my wife and 3 children are far more loving than I am. I’m thankful for all the people that have loved me along life’s journey. They all kinda tolerate my grumpy disposition! I know the Spirit of God can help us do and feel things that are not in our normal character and disposition. When you love someone whom you normally dislike, then God is glorified for what His Spirit is doing in you. I’ll keep working on it. I thank God that He has put so many people in my life that loved me.

THE PLACES YOU’VE SEEN

Again, my poor wife. I don’t like to travel. I get stressed out easily about every little thing or situation or “what if” that might happen or happens on a trip. My family dread traveling with me b/c fo that. I’ve gotten a little better, but still I really don’t want to travel. My wife loves to travel. Anywhere, it doesn’t matter where. Fortunately, the Lord pushed me out of the nest, and instead of going to Vietnam (I almost was drafted, I was 1A when I finished my engineering degree) my wife and I went to Trinidad, West Indies for 3 years (maybe the best years of my ministry) and then 2 years in Colombia, South America. Since then we have made trips to Vancouver, Italy, Honduras, back to Trinidad with some of my kids, Costa Rica (20 years ago), and Baja, Mexico. Recently we have made trips with our entire family to Puerto Rico and to Costa Rica. Each of those trip created memories that I hope I never forget. (AI) “Travel Is Fatal To Prejudice, Bigotry, And Narrow-Mindedness. So Is Returning Home. Mark Twain wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejuidce, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” I needed those trips to get me to experience some great things in life that I would have missed otherwise. I got to see the Coliseum in Rome where Christians were persecuted, Pompeii where Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, the Butchart Gardens in Vancouver, Volcano Arenal in Costa Rica, and many other places. I thank God that he pushed me out of my nest to go to all these places.

MEMORIES YOU’VE MADE ALONG THE WAY

God has given me many good memories during my 75 years (along with the travel memories). As stated, the travel created many memories: snorkling among coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea, the Butchart Gardens in Vancouver, a lady peeling tomatillos in a barrel of freezing weater for $1/hr in Baja Mexico, visiting Hugh and Dorothy Minor in Vancouver, teaching in a Saturday school of preaching for local leaders in Trinidad, our parents visiting us in Colombia South America, driving to the beaches in Vieques Island Puerto Rico with the kids, the family staying on the beach in Tamarindo Costa Rica, eating a great breakfast with family at our very nice place right at the foot of Volcano Arenal in Costa Rica, the wedding ceremonies of our 3 children- all finding godly mates, as a principal at a fledgling but great Christian school in Birmingham Alabama, courting and dating my current wife from the time she was in the 9th grade, playing baseball at the famous Rickwood Field in Birmingham (180 Hall of Fame MLB players have played there), fishing at Smith Lake where we built two cabins and spent most of my high school weekends, 2 years of nothing but bible study at a school of preaching in West Monro Louisiana, and on and on I could go. It is Thanksgiving, 2024, and I want to thank God for all these memories. I have several bad memories, but the good far outweigh the bad.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

This article is all about me with people, places, and memories that mean nothing to you, the reader. But I have enjoyed thinking about the people I love (and those who loved me), the places I have been, and the memories made along the way. I would encourage you, right now after reading this article, to write down your people you have loved, places you have been, and memories you have made along the way. I assure you it wil make you even more grateful during this Thanksgiving season.