About three months before my birthday I really started reflecting on what the last nearly decade had meant to me. If you read my previous post I may sound a little bit like I’m repeating myself, but my 30’s have definitely brought me some of the greatest joys I’ve experienced in life, as well as some of the deepest sorrows. For whatever reason, the “9” birthdays have always evoked a sense of reflection and looking back. While there is nothing wrong about looking back and reflecting on the past, I know I don’t want to spend 39 overly focused on something ending. To be brutally honest, since losing my mom, I have done a lot of reflecting on the past. Rather than continue down the same path, I’ve decided to make Thirty-Nine a year of growth.
Most people have heard of a bucket list – a list of things a person wants to do or experience before they die, before they “kick the bucket.” I have decided not to create a before 40 bucket list, but rather a Garden List. You see, in my eyes bucket lists are focused on endings, and I’d rather focus on renewals and beginnings. When I think of a garden, I don’t just think of the end results, I think of the act of gardening and the time and care that goes in to growing a beautiful garden. I want Thirty-Nine to be about growth and life and I want to be purposeful in cultivating that in myself. In a year, when I’m celebrating the big 4-0, I want to be standing at the doorway of a new decade a better person than I was leaving the previous one.
Tricia’s Garden List:
1. Buy a piano
2. Self-publish a personal cookbook
3. Run a 5k
4. Walk 300 miles
5. Declutter…REALLY purge
6. Shake a bad habit
7. Improve my education
8. Rekindle a friendship
9. Make work meaningful or make a change
10. Start playing my Oboe again
11. Host a dinner party
12. Send a postcard from every trip I take
13. Girls trip!
14. Visit my mom’s grave
15. Attend a concert or show at the Kennedy Center
16. Journal
17. Make a quilt
18. Write a letter to myself to read on my 50th birthday
19. Go to high tea
20. Pamper my fingers and toes more regularly
21. Try a new haircut/style
22. Take a vacation that is not completely focused on photography
23. Get serious about my business
24. Start a potted/container garden
25. Bake cookies for the neighbors
26. Set up my in-home photography studio
27. Learn OCF
28. Update my wardrobe
29. Make more or an effort on my day-to-day appearance
30. Get a massage
31. Soak in the bathtub once a month
32. Tackle and conquer paper clutter
33. Take my vitamins everyday
34. Read a book series
35. Invest in a big girl purse and get rid of all the others ones I have
36. Take on a 30 day challenge
37. Learn all the words to one Adele song
38. Sew an easy dress and wear it
39. Submit a photo session to Bloom
40. Give Yoga a try
41. Drink more water