Be a Bucket Filler

 This morning we had a staff meeting.  I mostly dread staff meetings because they long, drawn out, and mostly flub, so I sloughed into ours this morning with similar expectations.  Most of the meeting met those expectations, but at the end of the meeting our principal hesitantly pulled out a children's book to read to us with the intent of boosting morale.  With the expectation of being laughed out of the room, he carefully opened the book and prefaced it by acknowledging the potential of humiliation.  The little book was titled Have You Filled a Bucket Today?.  It talks about how we each walk around with an invisible bucket.  Now, this bucket starts out each day being empty.  The day calls for it to be filled or depleted again.  As we walk around each day we have the opportunity to fill someone's bucket or to be a "bucket dipper".  With love, acts of compassion, kindness, and respect we carefully fill one another's buckets.  With every mean word, dismissal, and careless or unknown act of coldness we become bucket dippers.  As you fill someone else's bucket, you fill your own as well.  

As he finished reading through the book I could feel myself becoming happier.  He concluded the meeting by passing out slips of paper that we can fill out and let someone know how they have filled our bucket.  He also gave us a solo cup to symbolize our buckets.  I am not one for cheesy gimmicks, but this one made my day.  I love the idea of being a bucket filler.  What an elementary concept that adults still do not understand.  With one small action you can add a little bit of happiness to that person's life.  I don't do this nearly as often as I should.  We all become caught up in the spiral of negativity and I find myself complaining more often than showing gratefulness.  I want to be a bucket filler at my job and in my life in general.  So what are you?  Are you a bucket filler or a bucket dipper?  Go be a bucket filler!!