Graphic from ye olden days when I first wrote this list!

Dearests,

Twelve years ago, long before the workbooks were ever born, I decided I needed to start writing my bucket list at the ripe old age of 22.

What’s a bucket list?

“a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.”

For me, it was a list of all the things I wanted to do to live – really live – my beautiful life. The big & the small.

Once I got clear on what I wanted, I started making them happen.

Twelve years on, I am stunned at how much of it has already come true.

STUNNED.

And so grateful for all the things I still want to do as well.

So much more life to live and experiences today.

I thought about this list today because stunning, breathtakingly, another bucket list item is coming true for me in mere hours.

It came about a couple of months ago.

I’ve become quite enamoured with using essential oils for health, spiritual + emotional healing.

Each night, I apply essential oils to my feet to help me sleep and heal my broken immunity.

In particular, I used Frankincense which is good for both of these things, and so much more.

And what I discovered was… (along with a number of my oily mates)… is that Frankincense gives you… psychic dreams.

Really strong, vivid, clear dreamings. It’s full powerful and v special.

Anyways, one particular night, I had a crystal clear dream:

I was at a small gathering, and James Taylor was there.

(James Taylor, my one + only, my bucket list, the songwriter of my soul.)

And he brought out his guitar, and he started singing.

And I was sitting right in front of him in a deck chair, and kept thinking to myself:

“This is incredible. I have FRONT ROW TICKETS TO SEE JAMES TAYLOR SING! BEST.DREAM.EVER.”

It was rapturous and blissed-out.

Two days later, James Taylor face pops up on my screen. Literally. A pop up ad.

And I thought:

“As if he would be touring in Australia. It’s just a tour in America they are advertising. Even IF he is finally coming to Australia, he won’t be coming here. Not to this small city that NEVER gets any big American stars!”

But the dream was embedded deep in my mind.

So I clicked.

And I stopped breathing.

James Taylor.

In Australia for the first time in 7 years.

And.

He

Had

Just

Announced

A

Canberra

Show.

Canberra. Where I live. Where no US singers come. Canberra. Quiet, homely, Canberra. He was coming. TO ME.

James. Taylor.

I started sobbing immediately.

Not just that…

but tickets weren’t released yet.

AND… I talked to Chris…

and we decided to try and pull off my dream…

Buy front-row tickets.

I was in the car when they opened for ticket sales.

Chris was driving, Mermaid Daughter #2 was having a toddler tantrum.

My hands were shaking.

I counted down the seconds.

And then, there it was.

I clicked.

And my dream land and real land had converged.

I had front row tickets to see James Taylor sing.

It’s happening tonight.

I’m trying not to think about it, lest I barf or hyperventilate with excitement.

I asked my darling Deb how to deal.

“Just keep yourself nice and don’t make too big a spectacle.”

The most grandmotherly advice ever wrote.

I keep thinking of this, and laughing through my nose.

It’s good advice.

Damn good advice.

One of the most special things from my bucket list is coming true.

I am so bloody grateful. Thank you magical world. Thank you Frankincense. Thank you (sob) James Taylor.

So herein is the bucket list I started writing 12 years ago. What’s been dreamed alive, and what’s still being soaked beneath the surface, ready to seed and bloom in good time.

Things To Do This Life List

1. Have a midnight picnic

3. Have a bicycle with streamers on the handlebars

5. Read tea leaves

7. Play Bingo in a Bingo hall.

9. Handglide

11. Swim with dolphins.

26. Dance on a table

29. Get published by a publishing house

47. Sleep under the stars again

55. Get so flexible I can bend my head to my knees

59. Get a professional dress-ups photo taken (dressed up like another era) – I was so close to having this happen in a little German town in South Australia, but they’d just closed!

60. Baptise a baby

63. Watch a foal being born

74. Take photos of the red dirt of the Grand Canyon against a blue blue sky.

75. Gondola. Venice.

76. Meet SARK.

78. Paint with ochre rock dust

79. Create my own set of oracle cards

90. Walk the Camino trail

91. Go to Tibet

93. Go to Maccu Piccu

103. Hold workshops all around the world

110. Publish a range of greeting cards.

112. Return to Uluru.

113. Meet Brooke Medicine Eagle.

114. Go to a residential spiritual retreat.

120. Photograph a magical singer for their album

121. Do The Gift.

122. Go to Japan.

123. Go to the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury.

126. Go whale watching again!

127. Take Mermaid Daughter #2 to Reefworld

128. Go to Nu Zillland (New Zealand)

129. Celebrate our 50th love-a-versary

DONE

119. See James Taylor in concert. – TONIGHT HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

111. Go to Tasmania with my lover. – Done. Moved there for 6 months!

27. Design my own sticker series – Done.

2. Paint my nails bright purple – Done

4. Have henna painted on the palms of my hands – Done.

6. Learn how to say “thank you” in six languages. – Done.

10. Wear a lot of bangles on my wrists so I can make music when I *sashay* – Done.

12. Spread happy graffiti/street stickers – Done.

13. Photograph project of street art – Done.

14. Hold the hands of my beloved on a beach and say *I do* while looking intensely into his eyes – DONNNNNNNNNNNNNE!!!!!!!

15. Begin & finish my second gratitude journal – DONE! Used this!

17. Read “Mists of Avalon” – 50% read, and I think that was all I needed to read, so I am marking this as Done.

20. Have a book launch – Done. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but an online launch where I hit the charts of Amazon.

21. Write silly and insightful sayings on t-shirts and wear them – Done.

22. Paint like a goddess – Done, and will do for the rest of my life.

23. Watch “What the Bleep Do we Know” – Done.

25. Record a full length song – Done.

28. Feel truly enriched, uplifted and satisfied by my career. Touch other’s lives with my work. You know what? I’m going to keep doing this… but I’m calling it DONE! I love what I do!

30. Paint a photo frame – Done.

31. Have a big treasure chest of artsy goodies – Done.

32. Make an altar – Done. This is so much a part of my life now.

35. Get an eyebrow ring – Done. And I loved every part of it – getting it, having it, letting it go.

36. Rockclimb – Done! Canberra has the best mountain rocks ever!

37. Have bright blue hair – Done. 

38. Canoe/Kayak on Lake Burley Griffin – Done. I’ve been sailing on it twice, and hilarious fun ensued.

39. Go to a Sacred Heart Gathering at Uluru – Done. And it was incredible.

40. Howl at full moon – Done.

42. Get a tattoo. – Done

43. Do an art portfolio up with photos of all my works – Done. And it looks awesome.

44. Learn Tibetan Buddhist meditation – Done.

45. Dance on a beach at night – DONE!!!! That was my sacred hen’s night on the eve of our wedding!!!

46. Have a LeoniePaLooza – DONE! DONE! I’ve had many of them now.

49. Eat noodles again at a streetvendor stall in SE Asia. DONE! Singapore!

50. Have a hammock. – We have a rainbow hammock chair instead!!! WEEEEOOOOOO!!! PERFECT!!!!

51. Own a blue car – Done. Aurora the Blue Jeep!

52. Add to this list – DONE!

54. Dress in disguise – Done.

57. Perform a rain dance – Done, and it worked! Also performed a stop-rain dance. Also successful!

61. Find a signature perfume scent – Done. My signature scent, I have realised, is no perfume ~ just the sweetness of my hair, the breath of wind around me, and occassional swirls of essential oils. My beautiful friend Angel said to me the other day “I love your smell Leonie. I have a pair of your socks that even smell like you!” I think I realised then my perfume quest was over… my signature scent is me.

62. Create a dreamboard – Done.

64. Marry myself – Done. I love this so much. Best thing I ever did for me.

65. Give birth – DONE!

66. Find a song that sings about a Leonie – DONE! Found on my 26th birthday – Arjan Brass sings “Leonie”.

67. Have no idea about what I’m going to be doing for a year. – DONE! When I wrote this, I had a different idea of how that would look. But it was different to my expectations. The first year of mamahood was this over & over. A void of time & space & knowing.

68. Tell a stranger they look beautiful – DID!

69. Give a spontaneous hug to someone I wouldn’t usually. DONE! My friend Deb + I had a hug-fest afternoon at work one day… I hugged over 100 people in three hours!

70. Cut and polish a rock – Had a spontaneous invitation from a new friend to do this! How cool!

72. Belly dance in blue – Done.

73. See a buffalo – oh my god! Done! I loved this so very, very much. I didn’t realise it was on my To Do List until just now!

77. Paint rocks – DONE. Me & Starry painted rainbow affirmation rocks & planted them in our town’s Goddess Persephone statue! Tee hee hee!

80. Delve and acknowledge the wisdom of my authentic and ancient self. DONE! – I do, and forever more will do.

81. Drink tea made from loose tea leaves – Done.

82. Make a necklace – Done.

84. Ride a horse again – Done. And I will again and again.

85. Lead a womens circle – Done.

86. Run a sacred creative retreat – Done. It was AMAZING. And I thought I wouldn’t do this for years and YEARS… but I did, and it was divine, blissful, tranformational. More than I could have ever imagined.

87. Submit a book proposal – Done! You GO Goddess Girl!

88. Appear in a SARK book – Done. RAR!

89. Go to India – Done. Wow. I travelled around India with my beloved, two sisters and Mum. Adventure of a lifetime!

94. Write a book – Done. I self published a book “Today I grew like a Wildflower” when I was 22. And then another one.

96. Be an apprentice to a Wise One. – Done.

99. Go to a world music/alternative music festival. – Done! Sacred Sound Festival at Ingelara Retreat.

100. Paint a wall mural – Done!

101. Do things just for me. – Done.

107. Be Leonie. – I love being Leonie. I am SO good at it! DONE!

108. Sell a painting to someone in Asia, Africa and South America. (Then I would have a painting in every continent!) DONE!

115. Create a photography website. – Done.

116. Have a solo art exhibition – Done.

117. Bushwalk in the Australian Alps – Done. We spent so much of our time in Canberra in the mountains.

118. Travel the NSW South Coast – Done! Once with my women’s circle, and once with my love the day after we found out we were pregnant, and again with my 2 daughters + husband 5 years later!

124. Visit the Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere. – DONE. It was so beautiful visiting this place with my beloved.

125. Get a pedicure. – Done!

97. Enjoy every single day of my life. – Dudes, I’m calling this DONE. I am rocking at it! Even when I’m not! Yeah! Woo!

98. Live in the country again. – A few more years & we’ll have our dream acreage!  WE DID IT!!! WE DID IT!!! 

105. Meet Doreen Virtue, Julia Cameron or Oprah. Or all three. – Oooh! I did interview Julia Cameron for the World’s Biggest Summit! It was scrumptious!

106. Set up a healing retreat – We did.

92. Read all the books in my bookcase

130. Be completely debt-free (mortgage included)

The Things I Thought I Might Like To Do But I Don’t Think I Do Anymore And That’s Totally Perfect List!

42. Learn the dates of star signs off by heart. – Meh. Don’t need to. This feels more like a should than anything.

53. Change my name to Leonie Cougar Mellancamp Allan {or not} – Done. I choose not too!

24. Watch the Qaatsi trilogy – Don’t feel the burning wish to anymore.

48. Hike for three days – seriously. Do I even want to do that kind of shit? Maybe if it was the Camino! Nah. I can’t stand long walks!

58. Wear a grass skirt and a coconut bra – Meh. Can’t be assed.

83. White water raft – Meh. Too rough for me. Not that interested.

95. Stay at an ashram in India for a couple of months. – I don’t think so. Maybe it’ll surprise me later on. But hey, I totally read “Eat Pray Love”. That’s JUST LIKE doing it yourself. Right? Riiiight?

102. Be in the SageWoman magazine (illustration, article or review) – This hasn’t happened not for lack of trying – I’ve submitted illustrations & an article to it, but it wasn’t the right timing. And then I was offered a regular columnist gig with them for their Maiden column – but I was heavily pregnant and just about to become a Mama, and knew I wasn’t in Maiden space anymore. So it’s been off timing. And now I don’t want to force this to happen. You know what would be cool though? If someone wrote a review for it of my book !

109. Have a neighbourhood progressive dinner. Meh! I just don’t wanna anymore. 

8. Scuba dive – Kinda makes me feel ewwwclaustrophobic thinking about it. And that’s okay!

71. Make a plaster cast of my breasts & belly and paint it – This didn’t happen while I was pregnant with Mermaid Daughter #2. It just wasn’t the right timing. And you know what? I just don’t feel the calling to anymore. I will always remember what it felt like to have a little mermaid swimming in my belly. And I have some truly exquisite photographs to remember that full moon belly of mine. And a painting of what it felt like to have her inside me. I am complete.

18. Read a Henry Miller book – downloaded onto kindle! And realised it’s totally not what’s calling me right now! Maybe laters!

19. Finish an Anais Nin book – downloaded onto kindle! And realised it’s totally not what’s calling me right now! Maybe laters!

16. Finish reading “Women who run with the Wolves” – No. I don’t need to at this time.

33. Cook a creme brulee – Decided against this after finding out I’m actually intolerant to dairy and eggs. Bwahaha!

56. Work in a bookstore – I’ve run my own publishing house. Close enough. Anyways, bookstores have books but also too many people.

The Things I Have Done And They Were Ding Dang Fun List!

1. Photographed a stranger.

2. Lived in Malaysia by myself when I was 18 for a couple of months. Gua Musang, Raub & Kuala Lumpur FTW!

3. Decided when I was 15 that I needed to go to boarding school. So I did.

4. Graduated as School Captain, School Dux, top student in every subject & with an OP of 2 (top 5% of the state). Dude, I’m proud of my little overachiever days!

5. Self-published my first book Today I Grew like a Wildflower when I was 22.

6. Worked in Parliament House in Minister’s Offices.

7. Told a joke to the Treasurer of Australia.

8. Worked as a finance trainee, a receptionist, a legal secretary, a personal assistant and a web editor. Now I work as a Goddess! Woo!

9. Studied at three universities: James Cook University, Monash University & Australian National University.

10. Twirled fire.

11. Met Louise Hay & Wendy Matthews.

12. Seen Sarah Mclachlan in concert.

13. Photographed the lovely & inspiring Lucy Cavendish.

14. Found my totem animal.

15. Invited people from the internet to be my Goddesses of Honour at my Inner Marriage ceremony. I met them half an hour before the ceremony. It was perfect, and one of them became my best friend!

16. Found someone with a matching Kath and Kim apron as me.

17. Found my dog’s soul mate.

18. Organised a mystery fairy picnic in an abandoned lot in another city while I was visiting. We wore fairy crowns and ate fairy food and made art and laughed and laughed and laughed.

19. Had a weekend where me, my love and my best friend had a mini-retreat at home and called each other only by our spirit animal names.

20. Found the Goddesses I work with: Quan Yin and White Buffalo Calf Woman. Even just saying their names feels like taking a deep, holy breath.

21. Found a spiritual mentor.

22. Had the guts to go to my first women’s circle when I was 21.

23. Had an impromptu photo shoot in a car park.

24. Organised hilarious lunches at the Pancake Parlour where we called each other by our porn star names, made everything sound deliciously lude, and took very silly sultry photos. Because that’s how we roll on public service lunchbreaks.

26. Been to a Wild Woman’s Weekend in Melbourne.

27. Discovered the joys of margaritas at Montezumas. Over and over again.

28. Celebrated my 20’s birthdays in ridunkulously fun ways.

29. Photographed my favourite tattoo.

30. Made a Find-Your-Birthday-Party Adventure Pack for my friend Deb. The map & chalk drawings of angels all over the city led her to us on a hill in the middle of a ginormous roundabout where we had a picnic and blew dandelions. It was the best fun ever. The End.

31. Danced with a baby in an old cow shed as a Filipino tribal chief sung.

32. Literally FROLICKED in the park when it became Spring in Canberra. Had a “23 degree celsius party” with a bunch of friends after one long, cold winter.

33. Did one of those awful work-exercise-things. You know the kind. The one where everyone is supposed to walk five kilometres for the sake of a sausage-on-bread BBQ. Managed to subvert it entirely by meandering like Jane Austen characters, smelling blossoms as we go and inventing our dream alter egos. The End.

34. Had a writer’s date with a friend in an antique alternate cafe for an afternoon. Pretended we were in Paris, took large numbers of photos on Photobooth and all round did very little writing. Most excellent.

35. Found my separated-at-birth twin in the same cubicle as me. Spent the next 18 months inflicting my need to play horse and carriage on him. Guess who was the horse?

36. Had very many spontaneous picnics with friends.

37. Invented a cocktail: Pink Frothy Vulva.

38. Ridden carousels with friends.

39. Covered a friend’s office desk with love post-it notes.

40. Staged the 2006 Cheese Awards.

41. Photographed an abandoned building.

42. Played nose to nose in sacred communion with a platypus in Melbourne.

43. Wrote a second book.

44. Mentored teenage girls

45. Bought my grandmother’s 100 year old cottage

46. Moved back to my hometown of Proserpine

47. Survived & thrived from Post Natal Depression

48. Interviewed Julia Cameron, Lynn V Andrews (two of my biggest heroines!) and 100+ other teachers for World’s Biggest Summit!

49. Made my life truly my own.

50. Thrown away all my old journals + sold my book library.

51. Cut my long long mermaid hair to short short pixie hair.

52. Held my dog as he took his last breath. Sacred.

53. Went on health retreat for a week.

*

Life. It’s pretty much the best thing ever!!!!

Dearest,

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend this practice of writing a bucket list.

Write it, and keep it close.

Watch the miracles unfold.

Big love,

P.S.