buckets

I was thinking today about things growing in proportion to what you put into them. Stacking bricks. Developing who you want to be. Building the future you long for.

And how sometimes the heavy weight lingers longer than you’d like. We never ask for these things. Despite the indisputable truth that often our biggest gifts, lessons, and growth come from our challenges and from enduring what is before us, we still don’t wish those hardships on ourselves. Like Frodo Baggins said, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” To which Gandalf replied, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

But in those dark times or under that heavy weight, as we forge our paths and navigate tricky waters, it seems essential that we keep making small, continuous moves and taking action on behalf of ourselves and the better future we want. Sure, things are heavy now. Sure, it’s a little murky and gray. Yes, we’re still feeling stuck in this spot. ✨ But the evolution that happens under the surface — the tucked away transformation, like a sneaky, glorious, secretive butterfly being born from the caterpillar cocoon — will make all the difference in the long run. ✨ You’re not stuck, because you’re strong. We can keep going and stacking bricks towards the dreams and visions we want to see come true, even if there isn’t a lot of evidence for them in the present moment.

As we do that, as we keep pouring into our buckets, these are the tools and practices that serve as our routines, a.k.a. lifeboats, keeping us afloat. Such as: staying on top of the habits that make you feel good, going to the gym, being intentional and deliberate, working hard for the job change you want to make, pocketing aside a treasured twenty minutes a day to paint or write or do Your Thing, spending time with loved ones, acting every day, in at least one small way, as if everything you want is already coming true… And before you know, the buckets are reaching the brim. Then they are overflowing. Things are happening. Change is coming. You’re making a ruckus. The weight is lifting. You’re seeing the results of those thousand hours, thousand bricks, thousand hopes and wishes and tiny steps forward. The actions you put in.

This is how it goes.

Unless we stop pouring into the buckets.

So, I urge you, keep filling the reservoir.

Even when the weight seems heavy and your doubt meter feels high.

If everything works out fantastically, you will only be all the more glad you stay committed to your practices and lifeboats, to the habits and actions and values you want to embody with your life. If everything works out, your bucket-filling will create even stronger success.

If nothing is working out yet, and you’re still in the muck… well, at least you feel as much better right now as you know how to, thanks to the good care you are taking of yourself! At least you know you are doing your best! You are believing and holding fast! You are choosing action rather than complacency, fear, shutting down, or the path of least resistance.

It makes the bad times better.

And it makes the better times better.

Things grow in proportion to what we put into them. Make sure you’re filling the right buckets, and then don’t stop.