BUCKETS

BUCKETS

Hello My Beauties,

Something miraculous happened last weekend… it rained. A LOT!!

It’s been a long dry spell here in the Santa Ynez Valley. We’ve had a few sporadic sprinkles since October, but this was a lovely downpour. We woke up to the sky kissed with gray-violet clouds, the blue looked as if Windex had given it a new shine, and the sun smiled down upon us all with a bit more sparkle.

We collect our rain run-off from the roof to water our houseplants and outdoor potted plants when it’s not raining regularly. Looking at our buckets, once dry as a bone, now full with cool rain water, I had a thought…

We need to gather gratitude and joy and love and laughter and hope like we do our run-off ~ to store and use on those days when we are parched and cracked open and aching for just a teeny-tiny drink of hope, of the awareness that, this too shall pass, of the knowing that the glass IS half full even when we feel like all of the above is bullshit.

There are days when it feels impossible to find hope, to gather gratitude close, to wrap yourself in joy and love. On those days, it’s enough just to pull yourself out of bed.

I’ve been there. I have friends who are there right now, lost in the mire of their sorrow. Hope is a foreign country, joy resides on the other side of the universe, love is overshadowed by the unbearable ache of it all, and laughter is too busy to come out and play because she’s hiding from sorrow.

These days suck.

For some, these days spread out before them in a never-ending battle just to survive. And that is no way to live. It is not what I wish for anyone.

I’ve had a taste of depression and the taste was enough to last me a lifetime. Perhaps, in part, that’s why I set my intention every morning to choose joy, to relish the little things, to fill my buckets of gratitude and joy and love and laughter and hope as often as I can.  That way, when I do have a hard day, I have all the water I need to cleanse away the ick, to drink down the tonic of gratitude, to know that hope exists, and that love resides deep in my bones, and like the sun tucked behind the clouds, joy is always there buoying my soul, laughter a tickle away.

We carry first aid kits around in our cars, tuck them away in our places of business, in our home in case of an emergency….

We need to do the same with gratitude and joy and love and laughter and hope.

What a relief it would be when our heart is bleeding to know we have just the right “bucket” to make it better….

Like knowing my emergency kit is there, knowing my imaginary spray-can of gratitude is handy and knowing my buckets are full with the healing tonics of  joy and love and laughter and hope, it makes it easier when I’m having a shitty day, to turn toward the light rather than away from it, to allow myself to grieve and yet, not drown in the sorrow.

My Beauties, I implore you, take the time to fill your buckets for those parched days, then let the cleansing waters of gratitude and joy and love and laughter and hope seep into the cracks and fill you up.  Doing so is a gift from yourself to yourself, the highest, most divine type of selfing.

Know you are not alone. Know you are loved. Know you matter.

Know you make a difference.

Be your own best friend.

Gather your tribe, love them hard.

Laugh till your cheeks hurt and your belly aches.

Pee your pants because you are laughing so hard, and then pause, take a breath, and SMILE.

You’ve just filled your buckets.

Blessings always and in all ways.

IN JOY

Shannon

PS:  If you’d like to read more about my imaginary spray can of gratitude, you can check out my blog post, Own Your First Day here:  https://thebeautifulyouproject.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/own-your-first-day/)

PSS:  If you haven’t checked out Jonathan Fields’ podcast, Good Life Project, please do.  He has a whole other take on life’s buckets and how to fill them.  You can find Jonathan at http://www.jonathanfields.com or at http://www.goodlifeproject.com