My grandmother is 85 and when there is a funeral for people in her generation there is sadness, of course, but there are also phrases like, “He’s had a good run” or “he has lived a full life”. However, now in my 40’s I have found myself at more and more farewells where that just isn’t the case. A life that feels like it’s been cut short is a terrible thing. It’s the finality of it all. The regret and the missed opportunity.
People talk about their bucket lists but we always seem to wait until we hear bad news or there is some kind of timeline. Often that is too late. By the time you get that kind of news, there are often physical or financial implications that stop you from doing the things that you hoped to do.
After going to five funerals in under a year that left me with those feelings and having two friends get life-limiting news, I felt this overwhelming urge to do something. So, I started a little project, the name of which I can’t write in print. We’ll refer to it here as “The Stuff it list”.
I asked a group of friends what was the one thing on their list and we are going to spend this year trying to make them all happen. Reading the comments, I was shocked how many things on my friends’ Stuff it List items were things that I had already been lucky enough to do.
I owe so much of the credit for that to my mother. She has always lived her life that way. She was only 27 when her father died at 54 years old. When she was 39, her partner Robert was killed in a car accident. Both were life-changing events in our family. Even though the sorrow was palpable, she found a way through and was so determined that both for her and her child, this would be the reason to live life to the fullest.
After the death of her partner, she taught herself how to single-hand sail a yacht and traveled all over the world. She traveled to Tanzania and spent some time working with St Judes. A school started by an Australian woman to help local girls get an education. It is an opportunity for these girls that for lots of cultural and financial reasons would otherwise be missed. For the last 20 years, mum has continued to sponsor a girl every year to receive room and board and school fees. She is an incredibly bright woman and has always used that quality to move forward. Every girl deserves that opportunity.
One of my friends who has sadly had some bad news recently had an encounter with the meerkats on his Stuff it List. Covid sadly prevented him from being somewhere that we could make that happen. The opportunity presented itself while I was at Hunter Valley Wildlife Park and we decided to grab it with both hands. I thought about all the times I have seen signs for those types of encounters and thought, I’ll do it next time. For so many people, there won’t be a next time. We were doing it now.
The Keeper who took us in was amazing and very informative and didn’t blink an eye when I teared up and had a little moment while we were in there. For some reason having those beautiful little creatures crawling all over us and feeding out of our hands just made me feel safe and warm. Covid was at its height and we were all scared but inside those gates and at that moment, I felt like we were doing something important. Nature will always make you grounded.
There are lots of encounters available all year round at Hunter Valley Wildlife Park check out what is available by heading to http://www.huntervalletzoo.com.au
On tour with the kid 
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