Tire Pumping

So, I've been thinking on this for some time, and I've decided to take a bit of a detour from my regularly scheduled blog posts...

My New Years Resolution for the past few years has been to tell people when I'm thinking or have thought something nice about them.

It has been such an awesome "bucket filling" experience.  How often do you see a friend, or even a stranger, and think to yourself that they look good, or happy, or that their hair looks super nice, and that thought does nothing more than float through your brain before you're thinking about something you need to check off on your to do list.

But if we take just a minute or two to maybe go out of our way to actually tell these people what we're thinking, we are pumping some tires that might have badly needed it.

When I receive a compliment, no matter how small, it can often carry me through the day.  Sometimes it puts a giant smile on my face for several hours, and sometimes it can motivate me to make some more healthy choices for the day.  But a little bit of feather fluffing can go a really long way!

We live in a different time.  With a few key strokes, we can give a review for every single place we visited in a day.  Many people do this, and as a busy Mom who often only has a few minutes to screen the internet for the best brow waxer, or burger joint, I appreciate their efforts!

The thing is, we can go to the same restaurant 20 times and have great service, and one time, we may experience an inconvenience, and yet, this will be the time we pipe up.  Sometimes, it's blasted all over a Facebook page.  Sometimes, it's a google or yelp review, or maybe we just tell everyone we know.  But for the 20 positive visits, we said nothing and told no one. We live in a time where we can greatly damage a business, big or small, and we can throw really big sticks and stones to personally attack people, all from behind our computer screens.

It feels so good to tell people how much they mean to you, or what kind of impact they've had on you.  So good.  And it feels fantastic to hear it!  If I am walking with my kids and we pass a group of people who are swearing, or maybe just being bullies, I am sure to say something.  That kind of sh*t bothers me!  (Kidding!  Kinda...), but there have been far too many opportunities pass, where I could have said something kind to someone and I didn't.

I am forever working on this because my brow furrows in resting now, for all of the things that need doing.  I am constantly thinking about what comes next.  And I do notice the nice things and I want to take the time to say something.  I remember the times I have filled buckets.  The book we read to our kids is entirely correct.  When you fill someone else's bucket, you also fill your own.  I am forever talking about not having time, but I truly would like to protect just a few minutes, every day, to fill buckets.  Wouldn't you, too?