Contentment

60: (August 2026)

I don’t have a bucket list. Sometimes I wonder if that means there is something wrong with me. Everyone seems to have a bucket list of things they want to do or acquire, or places they want to travel. Not me. When people ask me what’s on my bucket list, I generally go blank.

I pondered the most recent interaction I had had with a friend about the bucket list question while sitting in my screened porch the other morning with my husband. We’d just had breakfast, and the sun was beginning to show itself, stretching toward the robin’s-egg blue wall of the porch. I realized how perfectly content I was as I drank in the pretty wall color, the birdsong, and the fact that I was sitting next to a person I deeply love. I didn’t want for a single thing.

As for travel, I feel quite fortunate that I have had the opportunity to see the world a fair bit in my 68 years, and I don’t feel like I need to see every corner of it; there’s no place that pulls on me strongly enough to go into a bucket. I travel to see our children and grandchildren and that keeps us very busy as it is. Am I boring? Maybe, but I don’t need to prove anything to anyone, so I’m okay with that. I am curious about the world, but I guess I’m not an adventure seeker. There’s nothing I’m dying to do or see at this point in my life. I’m open to new opportunities, to surprises, but am generally very happy exactly where I am planted.

To be content may not seem to be the most exciting thing in the world, but it really works for me. I am happy not to be striving, pining, longing for anything. I am relieved to be at a point in life where I can sit in a screened porch on a hot summer morning and feel sated by life. I’ve no doubt that unexpected challenges will come, but for the moment, I’m appreciating life, just as it is. Now.

Maybe this is just a phase, and I’ll feel like filling that bucket someday, but at present, I take the time to pause and notice how the color on the wall is so delightful, how the sun makes the porch glow, how the porch swing is so idyllic, how my husband makes me smile, how the birds twitter and the crickets chirp. My bucket may be empty, but my heart is full.

40: (August 2006)

It’s so easy for me to get caught up in all the things I feel I am supposed to do. Like many people I know, I often feel like a day is a few hours too short. So when an old friend who lives an hour away invited me to go to a garden center with her, my first thought was, “Oh, I should stay home and sort through my paperwork, fix the fence, mow the lawn, etc.”  Yet I went, and it was time well spent. Being in the company of an old friend is always wonderful, but the “garden” was better than anything I could have ever imagined.

We went to a farm that specializes in growing lilies. Acre upon acre of cultivated lilies stretched out toward the horizon in carefully tended rows. Acres! It was a feast for the eyes and balm for the soul. We strolled between the magnificent ribbons of color. The colors, forms, and fragrance were so spectacular that it was hard to absorb it all. Such extravagance of natural beauty in one place under the sun—thousands of lilies, all in bloom at the same time! Ruffled edges, double-headed centers, heart-shaped petals, spiky petals. Pinks, peaches, yellows, and mauves all reaching up toward the sky in graceful waves. The lilies of the field.

I drove home, sated by their energy, vividness, and joie de vivre, and suddenly something popped into my head that I had been trying to figure out for months. It was the solution to a creative project I had been puzzling over, and the answer finally came to me, seemingly without effort or thought. I have learned this lesson before, but I forget and have to relearn it from time to time; I often save time and effort in the long run when I allow myself a break in the routine, especially if it is coupled with getting nourishment that feeds my deeper self. Flowers fill me in this way. They delight me.

Never underestimate the power of beauty. Whether it is art, music, nature, or something else, give an audience to whatever form of beauty speaks most deeply to your soul. You never know when you might find inspiration in the whisper of a lily.

60-40:

I can be very frenetic, my mind racing, the nervous energy in my body pouncing into action on various projects and tasks. I have to consciously make myself slow down and drink in nature’s gifts and life’s blessings. Writing is a tool I use for reflection and to practice getting to deeper places of peace and gratitude. Creating music and gardening serve that same purpose for me. We all have our own ways.

I looked up the definition of contentment on the internet: “Contentment is a deep state of happiness, inner peace, and satisfaction with your current life. It means you feel complete and at ease, and you do not need extra things or a different situation to feel okay right now.”

Yup. I’m good with that.