My wise friend Amy Bell and I were having coffee the other day, chatting about life. It's been hard.

And feels like the hard stuff is not going to let up anytime soon.

One way to "deal with the hard" is to make sure we fill our buckets.  We all need things in our lives that we love to do, that make us happy, that give us the joy we all need.  Life can be crazy and busy and hectic sometimes.  Most of us have to-do lists a mile long, and not enough hours in the day to even make a small dent in them.  But at the top of our list should be those things that fill our buckets.

5 ways I fill my bucket (definitely not all inclusive):

1. spending time with Dave, often doing nothing in particular
2. coffee with a girlfriend
3. doing yoga
4. reading and collecting books, going to the library
5. creating, writing, crafting

Everyone's bucket is different, and lots of different things will fill them. Some things will fill it a little, and some will fill it all the way up.

I asked Dave how he fills his bucket.  Hunting, fishing, hockey... but, he admits, that he often fills it with drops, only taking bits of time to fill it. Thinking further, he said, ""Why fill it with drops when you can throw in a five gallon bucket?" A great insight and something to strive for.

Sometimes, when we're really good to ourselves, our buckets get filled up, and they may even overflow.

And when they do get to that, overflowing with happiness and joy, that's when we can fill other people's buckets.

Imagine a world where everyone's buckets were full, and even some overflowing?

How great would that be?!?

How do you fill your bucket?