A Spring Bucket List for Women Over 50

Ten things to do this season — for yourself, just because.

Spring has always felt like a personal invitation to me. Not a to-do list. An invitation.

I was standing in the kitchen with my drinking chocolate this morning, looking out at the back yard. The light back there is softer than the front of the house — more diffused, quieter. This morning it caught one of the pines just right, the trunk lit up from somewhere inside, glowing faintly. It is magical every time.

After a winter of cocooning — the stacks of books, the soup pot going constantly on the stove, the cozy months of not going anywhere and not minding at all — there is something in the longer light that makes me want to say yes again. Not to everything. Just to some things. Go somewhere. Make something. Sit outside and actually notice it.

This is not the bucket list of someone trying to cram sixty experiences into ninety days. This is a list for us — the women who are finally, in midlife, beginning to understand that spring is not a warm-up for the good part. This is the good part. And it is worth showing up for.

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Go Somewhere That Only You Have Been Wanting to Go

Not the trip that works for everyone’s schedule. The one that is yours. The town you drove through once and thought — I want to come back here — and never did. The place you have been meaning to go for years and keep not going.

Find it. Book it. It does not have to be far or expensive. It just has to be the thing you keep meaning to do.

Buy Yourself Flowers Every Week This Season

Not as a treat. As a practice. Peonies will be here and gone before you know it. I have spent too many Mays meaning to get them and not getting them. Not this year.

Twenty dollars at the farmer’s market. A jam jar on the kitchen table. Ranunculus in whatever color makes you happy right now. You do not need a reason. The season is the reason.

Make That Long-Overdue Call

The college friend you have been meaning to call since fall. Your favorite aunt. The neighbor who moved away three years ago, the one you think about every time you drive past her old house and then do not think about again until the next time you drive past her old house.

Call her this week. Put it on the calendar. Better yet, do it now. An hour goes quickly. You will feel better for days afterward, and you will wonder what you were waiting for. (The answer is nothing. You were waiting for nothing.)

Plant the Thing You Keep Not Planting

Not the sensible thing. The one you fold the corner down on in the catalog every year and then don’t order because it seems like a lot.

The cutting garden. The climbing rose you’ve been picturing on the back fence. The herb bed that would actually be useful if you would just plant it.

I am doing the herb container again this spring. The deer will probably find it. I have made peace with that. At least I will have done it.

Take Your Book Outside

The porch, the back yard, the bench in the park two blocks away that you have walked past a hundred times without sitting on. Bring the book and something cold to drink and leave your phone inside. Read until you lose track of time.

This is not laziness. This is what restoration actually looks like. In the mornings before the world is fully awake, I take my drinking chocolate out to the front porch and just sit. The dawn chorus starts up — first one bird, then everything — and so do I. The past few days have been a little chilly, but soon it will be too hot and humid to stay out long, and I do not want to miss this window.

Cook Something You Have Never Made Before

Not a new version of chicken. Something genuinely unfamiliar — a cuisine you have only eaten in restaurants, an ingredient you always walk past at the market, a technique that seemed like too much trouble in February.

We have been eating root vegetables for months. Not that I don’t love a sweet potato. But after a long winter, spring asparagus, rhubarb, and artichokes sound like exactly the right thing.

Refresh One Corner of Your Home

One corner. Not a project, not a renovation, just one spot that has been bothering you — the entryway that never quite comes together, the bathroom shelf that has been accumulating things since the last administration.

Clear it. Add something that makes you happy when you walk past it. A candle. A small plant. A piece of art. The tending of the places we live is not frivolous. It is one of the most beautiful forms of self-care.

Have the Lunch You Have Been Postponing

We say this constantly — we should have lunch — and we mean it every single time, and then the weeks go. Sometimes the months go. The problem is we are waiting for a day that works perfectly for everyone. That day does not exist. It has never existed.

Pick someone. Pick a date. Just go.

Write Down What Is Good Right Now

Not as an exercise. As a record. Because spring moves faster than it should and you will not remember this particular day — the light in the back yard, the oak lit up from within, the second cup of something warm — unless you write it down.

What is good right now? What small thing made this week better? Who showed up for you? Write it down. You will want it later.

Spend One Afternoon With Nowhere to Be

Not a productive afternoon with a soft agenda. Not errands you are technically free to skip but won’t. Just an afternoon with no plan — the porch, a glass of something, whatever you are currently reading, the dogs sprawled in the sun.

You have been useful for a very long time. You are allowed to sit in the afternoon light and let it be enough.

You may have noticed that this bucket list is just for us. No one else’s schedule, no one else’s agenda. It is practically free and it is filled with the little things that, in my experience, bring the most joy. That said, there is always room for the big things too. If there is something larger you have been putting off — a trip, a dream, something you have been meaning to do for years and keep not doing — make a plan. I highly recommend Paris in the spring. Also Venice, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam, and Brussels if Europe is calling. And there are places in this country just as magical, just waiting. The little things and the big things are not in competition. Both belong on the list.

What is on your spring bucket list this year? Is there something you have been meaning to do for years that you are finally going to do this season? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

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You might also enjoy:

Who Am I Now? How Midlife Didn’t Change Me — It Reminded Me

Friendship After 50

15 Spring Self Care Ideas to Add to Your Routine

On My Radar~Spring