08/19/2024
Merci Madame Cora restaurants 🌸❤️🌸💓
BEFORE I TURN OFF MY HEART
(Pour lire la version originale française, cliquez ici : https://www.facebook.com/corarestaurants)
In my last letter, I announced that I had finally booked a cruise to Alaska – another box on my bucket list checked off. This has inspired me to talk more about bucket lists with you and what I’d like to experience before my time is up. Each one of us, dear readers, should slow down, reflect upon, choose, name and list a few activities, wishes or dreams we’d like to realize before the big finale. Think about it for a moment, especially us elderly people who can hear the ticktock of our internal timers getting louder and louder.
I’ve loved making lists all my life! I’ve had all sorts of lists: goals to reach, documents to learn by heart, plans to approve, new recipes to master, daily chores to handle, best-selling books to read, Sunday letters to rework and an ever-changing list of unfulfilled desires.
You can start a bucket list by randomly writing down thoughts as they pop into your head and then rearrange them in order of importance. The goal of this exercise is to uncover simple and adventurous experiences you’d like to live, and then project them into the universe of possibilities.
Deciding the order of the items on my bucket list is turning out to be as complicated as removing a cherry pit without staining your fingers. I have an awful lot of years of experience and, even with all this life experience behind me, I still can’t figure out what would truly make me happy before turning off the lights one last time. A bit more success? Finding love? I certainly need more time to taste the true love I’ve always searched for.
Before I turn off my heart, I’d love to drive around my native Gaspésie one more time. I’m too busy at the office to do it this summer, but next year, I promise I’ll do it!
I’ve often wished I could rely on the companionship of a pet to finally experience the affection and attachment between animal and master. But being overly busy seeding restaurants all across Canada, I’ve always hesitated. Am I too old now to learn the language of an animal? I can just imagine the puppy or cat keeping warm on my couch, watching documentaries with me and playing with my balls of yarn.
I dreamed of going to the opera for the first time because I simply adore the human voice and the interaction between the operatic characters. I finally saw “Madama Butterfly” in the spring of 2023. A masterpiece. Will I go back to the opera soon? Absolutely! I’m waiting for Giacomo Puccini’s TURANDOT. This famous story of a fictitious medieval Chinese princess who’s as cruel as she is beautiful. Quick, I have to see whether it’s coming to Montreal soon!
I wish to visit Sweden and, more specifically, the boutiques of fashion designer Gudrun Sjödén. In another life, I would have loved being her neighbour and working in her workshops. Ask Google to show you this talented Swedish artist’s unique clothing designs.
I also want to visit Iceland, the mother country of my favourite novelist, Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir, who wrote the highly acclaimed “Rosa Candida” and more incredible books.
I dreamed of writing and publishing a new book, and I did just that, in autumn 2023. Its moderate success is enough to motivate me to keep on writing.
I hope to live for as long as possible – beyond 100 if the angel of longevity will let me. I love waking up every morning, opening my eyes, hearing my heartbeat, getting up and feeling blessed that my fingers can still type away on a keyboard.
Your bucket list is a tally of wishes, dreams or challenges you’d like to realize. It’s a bottomless basket in which you can drop a new dream or remove one that no longer tempts you or has already come true. It’s best to try and strike a balance between small and big projects for your list. The easiest ones will give you the confidence to tackle the harder ones!
It’s also a good idea to regularly read your list so your determination to keep checking off your life’s desires doesn’t waver. Isn’t it an excellent occasion to rejoice and celebrate? Sharing your bucket list with friends or family might also entice some of them to start their own list. And isn’t that a wonderful gift to offer them?
I firmly believe that declaring our wishes to the universe is the best way to make them come true.
Cora
❤️