Bucket list? I don't need no stinking bucket list.

July 20, 2012
I am sitting in my camp chair in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, at a little over 9000 ft. above sea level, perfect temperature (63?), partly cloudy deep blue sky, surrounded by ponderosa pine, aspen, fir and spruce, listening to the calls of countless birds, watching grey squirrels scamper hither and yon, chipmunks darting yon and hither, hummingbirds fighting over the two feeders hanging from the nearest tree, and I pause from reading a good book and think "it doesn't get any better than this."
It does, of course, get better. It has been better, and will be better again. But what if it doesn't? What if I die right here, right now?
When I was a teenager, Peggy Lee had a hit song called "Is That All There Is?" The lyrics suggested disappointment at the end of life from not having expectations met.
My motto is more along the lines of Circle K convenience stores current tag line "What else do you need?"
Nothing.
I do not need anything else.
If I die at this moment, what will I regret not having done? What bargain will I want to make with God?
"Don't take me now, I still have to X."
Nothing.
Oh, there are things I want to do, places I want to go, people I want to see. "Don't take me now, I am having too much fun."
I grew up in a stable family situation. Neither rich nor poor. Whatever I didn't have or didn't do because we were perhaps more poor than rich, or because we lived in the sticks, I didn't and still don't miss.
I got to attend college. I was fortunate to meet Peggie, my one true love, and somehow convinced her to share the rest of my life with me. Score!
We raised two fantastic, healthy children who are now fantastic adults.
In the course of time passing I crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. I rode an elephant. I swam with sea lions. I stared into the eyes of a timber wolf. I got waaay too close to a grizzly bear. I observed a bull moose placidly grazing belly deep in a beaver pond while the beavers busily repaired their dam. I enticed a hummingbird to land on my finger to lap at the sugar water from the cup in my hand. I walked on a glacier. I survived a massive mosquito attack at the Arctic Circle. I snorkeled and climbed an active volcano in Hawaii. I positively influenced the lives of hundreds of students and was positively influenced in return.
I held my newborn granddaughter in my arms.
"Is that all there is to life?"
No.
But, what else do I need?