Making a Nectar List

How about we make a nectar list! It's the opposite of a bucket list, and really rather fun!

I think we all could use a distraction. Yes, a distraction from this pandemic. . . we're going into the seventh month of this. And we're right in the middle of a very contentious election. We need something fun, or at least different, for our brains and psyches. I think a "nectar list" is just the thing.

What is a nectar list, you ask? I read about it in the Huffington Post a few years ago. The author of the article, Sierra Vandervort, describes it as making a list of things you've already done. She says, "We need to reflect on the good things that have come to us in our lives. Even if you don't feel like you've done anything huge with your life just yet, I guarantee you can find something to look back on and be proud of."

She further stated that the idea for a nectar list came from an urban dictionary. She read "that sweet nectar was slang for 'to live' like kick the bucket is slang for 'to die.'"

I started trying it out in my journal and it's rather fun, and frankly therapeutic. And you don't have to have traveled the world to put things in your list. It's places you've been/seen, people you've met, experiences you've had from childhood to now. 

I'm stashing my copy of my nectar list in my journal or smash book for my children and grandchildren to read after I'm gone. I'm putting silly things from my youth and childhood....mostly so they will know and come to realize that I wasn't always a stuffy old grandma. They need to know I was young once like them and lived for fun times and laughter.

So trust me when I say it doesn't have to be things like, walking through the ruins of the Roman Senate or hiking up Pike's Peak. Here is just a silly list I made of my childhood. Oh yes, and be sure and embellish it with fun descriptive phrases--you want them to be able to SEE what you did. Tee hee. . . . 

Loved looking at the night sky in the Texas Panhandle in my childhood. Back in the days when light pollution wasn't so bad, and you really could see a million stars in the sky!

Passing notes in fifth grade. Yes, I was a stinker.

Examples from my list:

• On summer nights of my childhood I've played hide-and-go-seek and kick-the-can till I went in the house exhausted, but insanely happy.
• I've lain in the grass in my backyard and counted the stars with my sisters.
• In fifth grade I passed notes in Mr. Simmons' health class thinking he never suspected. (I taught school for 36 years, and now know. . . Mr. S knew.)
• I pranked my friends and laughed till my sides hurt in the girls' dorm in college.
• I slid down Devil's Slide at Palo Duro Canyon and tore my cut-off jeans. I didn't care!

My granddaughter in Palo Duro Canyon. And no, she wasn't sliding down Devil's Slide. Just a fun cave in the park.

Making your list as an adult; you can embellish those too! Or not!

Once again you can add typical adult things to your list, like giving birth to a baby using the Lamaze method. Or paddling canoes on Town Lake with your family and being unable to paddle because you were laughing so hard.

The author of the article on nectar lists added some silly things to her list: spitting out a wad of gum from the top of the Empire State Building. Or finding the premier recipe for mac-and-cheese. The items you put on your bucket list can be such things. Makes it fun for you, and fun to read!

I'm guessing all my Texas friends will have seeing the bluebonnets on their nectar list!

But wait! There's more! Maybe you HAVE traveled to some great places here at home and abroad. Of course, here's your chance to add them to your nectar list.

Here's a peek at my list:

• Walked around the rocks at Three Rivers Petroglyphs in New Mexico and saw rock drawings by ancient people who camped along the river.
• Witnessed cliff divers in Acapulco and shopped the mercado in that Mexican city.
• I've been fortunate to watch the sunset in glorious places--from Maui's Sunset Beach to the shores of Whidbey Island to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona.
• I met Waylon, Willie and Jessi Coulter backstage in El Paso, Texas.
• Walked an underground limestone cavern with my grandson.
• Did handstands and cartwheels on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower.
• I've eaten bangers and mash in an English pub.
• I've run out of gas on I-10 in El Paso, Texas in the middle of rush hour traffic.

Definitely an item on my nectar list. Traveling down into InnerSpace Caverns with my oldest grandson when he was little.

I've walked these stone steps to Old Acoma (Sky City), a ancient pueblo inhabited by the Acoma people for more than 2000 years.

I've watched skydivers fly out over the Pacific. I viewed this from the golf cart as my husband played golf at Torrey Pines.

Here are some of the rock carvings I saw at Three Rivers Petroglyphs in New Mexico.

Sunset as observed along the beach at Whidbey Island, WA.

Walking down the steps to the dungeon at Oxford Castle in Oxfordshire, England.

Start your nectar list NOW! And during this pandemic when we are not getting out much is the perfect time to start such a list. 

I'll end with a family picture. This trip was on my bucket list. I always wanted to take my grandkids to a local state park that I loved as a child. And I've been able to take all four of my grands. So this trip was on my bucket list and now it's on my nectar list--one of the SWEETest things I've done. I encourage you to start your nectar list today. 

Huffington Post article from which I got my nectar list idea from several years ago:

​www.huffpost.com/entry/the-nectar-list_b_5753464