Home usually isn't a place for bucket lists. This summer, I'm going back to my hometown of Winfield near Chicago, and I feel there's little there that I haven't done already. I've eaten at the restaurants, I've gone swimming in the lake and I've visited the landmarks.
The things I can't miss this summer are things I can't predict. I'll go to the same blues dance place I've been 40 times before and have a new conversation with a friend on the way. A new thought will cross my mind when I watch the sunset over the fields by my house. I'll find more reasons to notice the beauty around me.
Inconveniently, there's no list of moments in which you must pay attention to life. But this inconvenience comes with a blessing. Valuable moments are innumerable. Bucket lists do us good by drawing our attention to some of those moments, but why go to a bucket when you have the source?
This summer, I want to be surprised by the ordinary and notice the sweeping strangeness of life. Although my goal isn't a list, it makes everything I do part of my list. If I get a chance to do something new, so much the better.
