The Soul Mending Society: Week 1 Mend Yourself

Welcome to the first week of The Soul Mending Society’s first annual meeting! This being our first year we don’t have the agenda and details down to a science…but we hope you will join us as we work through starting to mend a few things in our sphere of influence….starting with ourselves.

Mend Yourself:

I’ve started this post approximately 8.6 million times.

There is so much that I want to say…but the more I type the more I don’t know if the message I want to share is coming across. So here is what I am going to do:

#1. I’m going to tell you something.

#2. I’m going to give you a list of quotes that have helped me in the hopes one of them may help you.

#3. I’m going to give you this week’s “challenge” as well a list of ideas to meet this week’s challenge.

#4. I’m going to quit deleting this post over and over again so we can all just get started already!!!

Soooo…here we go:

#1. The Something:

I can’t stop thinking about the quote from W.C. Handy that says, “You’ll never miss the water ’til the well runs dry.”

How many of us give and give and don’t realize that our wells are running dry until the water is gone?

And once it is gone not only do we have nothing left to give others but we have nothing left for ourselves and feel at a loss as to how to get even a drop back for ourselves?

Saturday night I sat with my family on the back porch and watched the mountain behind our home go up in flames. I watched the speed and power of the fire as it swept across the landscape destroying everything in its path.

Firefighters, helicopters, first responders, and planes dropping fire retardant were on the scene. It was hot and dry and windy.

And then I noticed on one small corner of the mountain, behind a home, a line was being drawn.

There I saw a lone firefighter with a hose stopping the fire in it’s tracks.

The fire retreated from the area.

The home he was protecting was saved.

The line was clear. The water flowing from a single hose had stopped the fire. The big powerful, raging fire had stopped burning because of one brave firefighter carrying with him a supply of water.

Later I reflected on what I had witnessed paired with this thought:

Indeed, we can’t serve others from an empty vessel. The firefighter I had watched would have been useless against the fire without his deep supply of water.

In the midst of the firestorms raging around us (a global pandemic, politics, health problems, family issues, economic down turns, crazy weather, insert your own personal storm here:______) how many of our wells have started to go dry?

I know mine has.

And so it is time to refill. Time to mend.

I know…there is so much mending to do…but we can’t help anyone if our vessels are empty. So this week let’s start to refill our wells….and maybe, just maybe in the process start a new habit that will constantly fill our souls with confidence, courage, and peace.

#2. The Quotes: The following is a list of quotes (probably too many) that have helped me at different times as I’ve mended and remended myself over the years. Some you make like…others you may not. Hopefully you will find something that resonates with your soul.

“We are all rough drafts of the people we are becoming” -Bob Goff

“Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities.” -Woman’s Home Companion, December 1935

“Perhaps the heart of our melancholy is that we miss the woman we were meant to be….Try to contact the girl you once were. She’s all grown up now. She’s your authentic self and she’s waiting to remind you how beautiful, accomplished, and extraordinary you really are.” -Sarah Ban Breathnach

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” -John Steinbeck

“I don’t care how big a loser you may or may not perceive yourself to be right now…make the decision to really go for it, know that you are extremely well poised to knock it out of the park and share your awesomeness with the world…We need smart people with huge hearts and creative minds…to make their difference in the world. We need people to feel happy and fulfilled and loved so they don’t take their shit out on themselves and other people…We need kickass people to be out of struggle and living large and on purpose so they can be an inspiration to others who want to rise up, too.” -Jen Sincero

“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.” -Margaret Shepard

“regard the small as important” -Lao-Tzu

“One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that other people will never know about.” -Anne Tyler

“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation. It means understanding that something is what it is and there’s got to be a way through it.” -Micheal J. Fox

“The body is a sacred garment. It’s your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor.” -Martha Graham

“Usually, when the distractions of daily life deplete our energy, the first thing we eliminate is the thing we need the most: quiet, reflective time. Time to dream, time to think, time to contemplate what is working and what’s not, so that we can make changes for the better.” -Sarah Ban Breathnach

“Let go of the expectation that if you work on yourself enough, you won’t struggle anymore. If you work on yourself enough, you’ll understand what the struggle is for. ” -Brianna Wiest

“I dwell in possibility.” -Emily Dickinson

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…You must do the thing you cannot do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

“Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real. Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” -Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

#3. This Weeks Challenge: Mend Yourself

Each of our tears are different and so the mending will look different for each of us….what might fill one of our wells might be something that would drain another. And so the Mend Yourself challenge is this:

Find one healing thing that you can do for yourself that could become a habit….and then do it this week.

What do we mean by one “healing thing”?

Here are a few examples:

During the holidays I felt my well was running dry…so I started “streaking” (running at least one mile everyday for a determined amount of time). I ran everyday from Thanksgiving to New Years. It sounds crazy but it was one of the best things I could have done for myself.

But…running isn’t for everyone…so here’s another idea:

I started buying a fresh bouquet of flowers to put in the kitchen once a month. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and I love flowers. Seeing them and smelling them brightens my day. I don’t spend much. Never more than $10-$15 but it is a small thing that I do for myself that makes a difference to me. (And actually, to my family as well….even though I started that little habit just for myself.)

Maybe flowers aren’t in the budget…so here are a few more ideas:

*Go for a weekly walk…buy yourself to collect your thoughts.

*Start keeping a journal.

*Make yourself a quilt with that beautiful fabric you have been saving for just the right project.

*Decide to drink your daily recommended amount of water every day.

*Read a good book.

*Stretch.

*Sit on the porch and drink something cool and bubbly while the sun sets.

*Sit on the porch and drink something warm as the sun rises.

*Set a limit on social media time for yourself and stick to it.

*Buy a pair of shoes that make your feet want to dance.

*Try meditating.

*Pull out your old paints and remember how fun it is to create.

*Listen to happy music.

*Make a heating pad for your sore muscles.

*Clean out your sock or underwear drawer…throw away anything old and tattered.

*Put your phone on silent.

*Make (or order) your favorite dinner.

*Watch an old favorite movie.

*Paint your fingernails.

*Take a bubble bath.

There are so many things you can do to treat yourself better….think of something you would like to do for yourself but that you don’t usually do.

And we will check back in with you tomorrow…with more details…projects and information.

#4. Quit Deleting:

OK…I’m pushing publish now instead of starting over again!

(And….if you want to find out more details about The Soul Mending Society…check out THIS POST!)