Going on an exotic vacation. Seeing friends and family. Helping an elderly neighbor. Finishing a marathon. What do these things have in common? They are all things that fill people’s bucket. The term “bucket” is a figurative one in this context. The phrase ”filling my bucket” often refers making a person feel fulfilled or good about themselves. There are many different ways and things that fill our buckets, and nobody’s bucket is exactly the same. Everyone has different things that make them happy. Some things that fill our buckets can be part of our everyday routine; while others are once-in-a-lifetime type of things. Regardless of what type of thing or action it is, when it happens, it fills your heart with joy and boosts your esteem.

“Thanks so much for letting me come in today. It really filled my bucket,” I texted one of my best friends recently after visiting and speaking to the kindergarten class she teaches. It was really neat because she and I have been friends since elementary school, and, now, here I was talking to her kindergarten class. As I explained in a previous entry, if my circumstances had been just a little different, I would have been a teacher. I absolutely love kids and I love seeing them blossom and learn. It fills my heart with so much joy—it’s truly unexplainable. I’ve done presentations for kids of all ages over the years. Depending on the age, I talk about my life living life with a physical disability. For kindergarten, it’s basic disability awareness and exposure talking about everyone is different, explaining what cerebral palsy is, and answering questions. Admittedly, kindergarten is the funniest age to do because they have no filter and the questions that they ask are often hilarious. My favorite one is who’s my favorite Disney princess? On the other hand, my favorite age group to talk to is high school kids. I talk about what kinds of services you can get through IEPs and how to advocate for the accommodations you may need to succeed. I can share my story, but, more importantly, I encourage them not to give up. By sharing some of the struggles and barriers I’ve overcome, I try to motivate them not to give up when life gets hard. Regardless of the age, being able to go to classrooms and educate kids really fills my bucket.

As I wrote about in an entry a few years ago, another thing that fills my bucket is spending time with my little nephews. While I still have that yearning to be a mother and more than likely always will, I’m absolutely loving being Aunt Stacy. My nephews are three and almost six now and they’re so fun. They both can take rides on the back of my chair and they just think that’s so cool. Of course, they want it on the fastest speed which makes Auntie nervous, but it makes my heart melt every time they ask for a ride. Is it something that aunts normally do? Of course not, but it’s something special that I can do with them. They’re learning how to communicate with me and it’s really cool seeing how their minds are working. It fills my bucket knowing I’ll be a part of their lives as they grow up.

Like everyone else, hanging out with friends also fills my bucket. Due to life’s circumstances, I don’t have the opportunity to get together with friends very often. Most of my friends live in a different city, state, or even country than I do, so getting together doesn’t happen very often. Also, most of my closest friends have families and kids of their own, so, obviously and rightfully so, they’re busy with them. Knowing that, it fills my bucket even more when we do get together because it means so much to me that they want to take the time to spend time with me. Furthermore, I’m not oblivious to the fact that it takes some extra effort to have a friendship with me, and it really means a lot to me that so many people are willing to do that.

Call it aging, call it self-care, attribute it to the looming Medicaid cuts, call it whatever you want, but over the last year, I’ve been really trying to do simple things that fill my bucket. Things like taking a walk to the store and McDonald’s on a Thursday morning when it’s nice out or watching almost all of the basketball games during the March Madness tournament fill my bucket as well. These are just simple things can do to give myself a boost of joy.

Over the last few years, I’ve been a lot more intentional about the things that I get involved in. Part of it because my body can’t handle too much stress, but part of it is also because I know that my time of being able to do the things that really fill my bucket is limited. This may sound self-centered, but I want to have time to do things that fill my bucket while I can.

Of course, we all have obligations such as work, family things, and other things that we have to do, but everyone should take time to do things that fill their own buckets sometimes. In this day in age where everything often seems so hustled and bustled, we need to take the time to do whatever fills our own buckets. I want to challenge you to take some time out of every day to do something that fills your bucket. Remember, we only get one life to live—we have to take time to enjoy it!

***The views expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of InControl Wisconsin, the Network or any of our sponsors