Bucket List Item #20: Contentment

Contentment. It means different things to different people. For some it means wealth. For others it means freedom. Still others find contentment in things. For me? Well, I am still working that out. And so, my last Bucket List Item....

I want to find contentment in my life and its amazing circumstances, varied as they are.

For me contentment doesn't look like anything in particular. It actually is a state of being. I have felt contentment on many occasions. I still do. I want that "feeling" to actually become a part of who I am. I want contentment to become a moniker that hangs around my neck and bleeds out around me, calming my world and spreading happiness and daisies - Oh, wait! I went a little wonky there...

I would like to have the presence of mind to realize when I am choosing discontent, rather than contentment. I do believe that it is a life choice, not something that lands on you like fairy dust. I have many of the same beliefs about love. I think choosing to behave in a certain manner is what makes us different from so many other life forms. We can choose to love past the passionate emotions, we can choose to forgive in dastardly circumstances, we can choose to remain calm during a disaster... I want to gain the habit of choosing contentment.

I want to look at my life, hectic as it is, and choose to view it in a state of contentment. Content that I have a home, content that I have food in the pantry, content that I have a beautiful and healthy family. I have so much to be thankful for, I just desire to choose contentment as my response.

So often I don't choose that response. So often I choose ambition, discontent, complaining. Not how I want to be remembered and not how I want my children to react to their world.

I could blame that response on my nationality: Americans tend toward discontent often, due in large part to that pesky "American Dream". I could blame it on my life circumstances and the choices I have made to this point... But mostly, I simply want to change those habits. I know I can. It is mine to choose.

I want to choose to be content with my life and all the wonderful blessings it holds!

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That's my little Bucket List of desires... What are yours? I'd love to read them!