If Money Were No Object...Alright Then!

I watched a video this morning.  It wasn't the first time I watched it, but it was the first time that it truly impacted me.  Perhaps you've seen it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZhIjGIdLQ4&feature=player_embedded , I recommend a watch if you haven't.  Once you've watched it, watch it again.  It really got me thinking.  My husband and I are at a point in our lives where things are all in the air.  We're about to move (again), and embark on a truly amazing, yet challenging experience.  No matter where the road (or the Navy) takes us, things are going to change.  Oh, I'm not complaining.  I'm actually looking forward to this part.  You see, my husband is about to reach a huge milestone in his career and in his life.  I feel like I'm that gal waiting for him at the marathon finish line except that I get to watch him through the whole race!

I've digressed.  This isn't about what is about to happen in our lives for the next three years, it's about what can and will happen after that.  Retirement!  Well, maybe not permanent retirement, but certainly retirement from stressful, demanding, full of responsibility work.  This is exciting for so many reasons.  We have spent the beginning part of our relationship and marriage skirting the demands of work.  We have been separated more than we have been together.  With retirement comes the opportunity for us to really be in that relationship that you only read about in romance novels.  Hahahahaha!  Yeah right!  My point, life starts!  We've set ourselves up for a pretty good life.  Now the question is "what do we want to do"??

Now, I can't speak for my husband, but for me the answer is simple...I want to be happy!  Since this post is all about me, and yes, even in the selfish way (I can do that, I'm the author), I'm going to focus on my thoughts only.  The video really opened up a lot of questions and ideas in my mind.  Regardless of whether money were no object, I just want to be happy.  Happy doing the hard part...living life!  What do I want to be when I grow up?  A writer, a photographer, a traveler!  These are the first thoughts that pop into my head.  

I'd truly love to be a writer.  I actually do want to write a book in my old age.  I don't even care if it's good or not.  I just want to see something that I have written bound in leather and on a bookstore shelf.  That is the top of my bucket list.  I suppose I should start an outline for this book so I have a clue what to write about before it's too late....nah, I'll just wing it.  It's how I write this blog.  I sit in front of the computer and just hope that words come through my fingers.  There's never any purpose, just a feeling that I need to write something.  Kind of like clearing the cobwebs, I guess.

Photography is another desire in my life.  I love looking at professional photographs and actually seeing what was in the mind of the photographer.  Sometimes I see pictures and they conjure up such strong emotions.  I think this is an amazing talent.  Capturing the soul of something.  Some day I will take a class and learn how to really work a camera and all the do-dads that go with it.  I'll start to journal my life in stills!  There is so much beauty around us, not necessarily even in nature.  I'm still one of those people who loves the National Geographic types photos.  To have photos like those means you are really living life (I actually took the photo to the left in Hydra, Greece). 

Travel is next!  Man, what I wouldn't give to have Samantha Brown's job!  She gets to write, travel and photograph!  That would be my absolute perfect thing to do.  To be able to have the experience and write about it, then share it with the world...true bliss!  I want to travel to exotic places.  I want to see how other people truly live.  Of course, I will be choosy.  I can do that, it's my life.  I want to experience the beauty and wonders that other countries are fortunate to have.  I want to see the world through the eyes of the people who live in it!  I want to capture the life and breath of what surrounds me.

{{SIGH}} And now I've woken up.  I wrote the first part of this entry a couple of weeks ago.  That
was before my trip back east to spend some time with family and to see my husband.  Oh, I still want to daydream about these things, but right now, I need to focus on the present.  Life is, after all, about the present.  My present is telling me that I have a list of things to do in my immediate future which won't allow me much joy in my present if I don't get them done.  While things are about to get really swirly around here, I have to say, at the end of the day life is still pretty good.

Life's a beach, and then you live on one...