Living to the Fullest: Can the Brokenhearted do it?

Note from Adrian: This is our next installment in the "Living to the Fullest" guest post series. Today's post is from Angela, a friend I've known for years and years.   Angela is a Romanian born, Kansan bred Christian, now residing in north Alabama as a 21 year old nursing major. She enjoys playing piano, and whenever writers block and business subsides, she writes a blog or two. You can follow her on her blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

(Want to write a guest post for Life Before the Bucket?)

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Recently, a relationship of mine ended, a family member passed away, and a few other closer relationships passed as well. The outward appearance of the brokenhearted can show all of the pain and depression, or it can show joy and happiness, even if you aren’t feeling it. 

Feeling down in the dumps after a recent break up can really get to you. Really, any traumatic experience to the heart can leave you feeling lonely and depressed. With all of the above happening in such a short amount of time, it’s been pretty rough on my heart. When I don’t think my heart can be shattered anymore, along comes another hammer to break it into even tinier pieces. I know you know what I’m feeling if you’ve ever lost someone close to you or had a close friendship dissipate.

So, how can we live to the fullest when it feels like our entire world has shattered? It may sound redundant, but you pick up the pieces and you stand. You move forward. You press on. 

I read a poem a few years back. I know I put it in one of my journals a while back. The poem talked about a little kid and their toy. It was broken. No matter how long the child sat there trying to fix the broken toy, the toy still did not fix itself. It wasn’t until the kid picked up the pieces of the toy and handed it to his father that the toy was fixed. 

The same goes for our broken-heartedness. If we sit and mope around all day long, how will that help in living life to the fullest? It won’t. It would be doing the complete opposite. It would be living life to the least. Until you give your broken heartedness up to the Father and pick yourself up, the more down and out you will become.

Living to the fullest means getting out in the world. Interacting with people. Building new relationships. Growing closer to old friends. Taking a walk in the park. Or going running. Anything to take your mind off the stabbing pain in your heart. 

Only time will heal the wounds of the heart (another cliché - oops). For instance, I’ve taken up my art again. Started drawing my comic strip again. Opened a book that needed to be opened again. Spent time with my Savior. Anything to make me feel whole again. So, if you’re brokenhearted and downtrodden, ask yourself, “How will I get out of this pit I’m in and start living life to the fullest?”

Adrian may not remember this, but a while back, he posted on a blog (editor's note: it's from my Xanga - now that's a throwback) a poem entitled “Enjoy Life”. I’m guessing he wrote it, because I can’t imagine anyone else writing it but him. I wrote I down and printed it out. It has stuck with me for years and years. And, I offer it as encouragement now.

Get up early and watch the sunrise.

Enjoy Life

Sing louder than you’re supposed to. Even when people are around.

Enjoy Life

Make one of your parents breakfast without expecting anything in return. (Because the look on their face is worth it)

Enjoy Life

Visit someone elderly who needs someone to talk to. It will make their day. (And yours)

Enjoy Life

Eat at a fancy restaurant just because.

Enjoy Life

Go out to eat at McDonald's and enjoy every minute of it.

Enjoy Life

Hang out with your friends. Even if it’s just doing nothing.

Enjoy Life

Listen to loud music, and have a blast looking like an idiot while you’re doing it.

Enjoy Life

Dance, even if you don’t think you can, because chances are, someone around you can’t either.

Enjoy Life

Live with no regrets, and make the best of every moment. Life throws us curveballs, and sometimes they hit us square in the face. But even when that does happen, we need to just get up and smile even if it does hurt a little because it’s worth it.

This is the only today you’ll ever get. Right here, and right now. Make the best of it. Live life to the fullest, because Christ died just so we might be able to. Jesus came so that we might have life and have it to the FULL!

Enjoy life.

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Questions: Do you struggle to enjoy life when times get hard? What do you do that you enjoy that breaks your slump? How important is it for you to continue living to the fullest, even when times are difficult?

This guest post was part of a guest post series called "Living to the Fullest." Interested in joining in? I'm still looking for submissions! Just write up a post, or even just an idea, and e-mail it my way!

Calling All Writers!

I had this elaborate post related to basketball from this past weekend worked out in my head... and then I scratched it.

So, in lieu of boring you to death with basketball metaphors, I have an announcement:

We need more guest posts for the "Living to the Fullest" guest post series! 

This series has become wildly popular over the last few weeks, and I'd like to keep that momentum going. Sadly, I'm almost out of posts, so the series may die (if not helped by you!) just as it's getting going.

So, if you have a computer (which you clearly do), and you have a brain (which I'm less sure of, but still almost certain about), then you can contribute!

The criteria is rather simple. E-mail me a guest post, or even just an idea for a guest post. If it relates to the topic and I enjoy your writing, you're in!

So that's that. Why are you still here, then? Get to writing and e-mailing me!

Thanks a million!

Saturday Showdown

It's time for Round 2, fellow Bucketeers.

Round 1 was a success, with Rebekah ousting Caleb to become the first ever Saturday Showdown Champ. And as a small reward, she received two weeks of free advertising here on Life Before the Bucket!

Our competitors for Round 2 are just as good - I promise. Here are the rules:

I'll provide you with links and snippets of two blog posts from the past week that I really enjoyed (for whatever reason). I'll present them to you, and then we'll put them up for a vote. All votes must be in by sundown in Manhattan, KS on Sunday (the 1st in this case). The winner will be featured for two weeks as the current Saturday Showdown Champion (so... free advertising!).

Sound simple enough? Alrighty! Let's get ready to rumble!

This week, we've got two very different stories of service. Vote for the one that resonates most with you!

Contestant #1 - "Walking a Mile with a Meth Head" by Christian Piatt

Emmanuel shows up on our front porch about once a week. His name means “God with us,” but if there’s anyone on the planet who appears to have been forgotten by the Divine, It’s him. He stands at about 5’4″ and has maybe a handful of teeth left. when he speaks, I catch about half of what he says, but there’s a childish innocence in his eyes that betrays the years of hard living he has endured since then.

Contestant #2 - "Remember:: Spaghetti Day" by The Hendrick Family

We remember this day every year by eating Spaghetti, retelling the story, and thanking God for mercy. I don't know why there is so much suffering in this world. I don't know why babies sit in hospitals with teary-eyed mammas by their sides or why mercy and healing seem to stay just out of reach. I don't know why my baby is whole today when other mothers with sick kids probably prayed more, fasted more, read their Bibles more, and were over-all better woman than I ever hope to be. Yet their babies suffer on.

After you've checked out both of these blog posts, be sure to vote in our poll! (Refresh the page to see current results after you vote)



So there you have it! Who is going to be our next Saturday Showdown Champion? It's up to you, my friends.

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After you vote, be sure to leave a comment telling us why you enjoyed the post you picked!

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading 

Win of the Week

It's just been one of those weeks.

It seems like everything I touched broke this week - my fridge, my laptop, and, as you know, my blog.

Not a week I plan on remembering.

But it is still Friday, which is always cause for celebration around here, because we share our Win of the Week with each other!

Now, like I said, I had a pretty rough week. For a few days, I didn't feel like I could catch a break. But the week is over, and I think my "bad stuff" streak is coming to an end.

Luckily, this week, despite how rough it was, flew by at about a million miles an hour. That, in an of itself, is cause for celebration. Plus, it means we're only a month away from graduating!

But my real win of the week is something rather small and insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. You see, when I have bad days, I try to look for the little things to cheer me up - a kind word, a relaxing moment, or a funny meme on the internet. 

That 'little' thing for me this week was my wife's amazing cooking. On Tuesday, she made us Chickpea Pot Pie, which I loved and devoured, despite never having chickpeas before. Then, on Thursday, she made us Penna Rosa with Shrimp & Spinach - a sort of imitation recipe of Noodles & Company, and it was to die for.

So... What about you? What was your win of the week? 

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading!  

Houston, We Have a Problem

Well, this is awkward...

My blog is, how do you say... broken.

My least favorite thing in the world

Apparently whoever was hosting the image for the background to this design closed their account or moved the image. So far, I haven't been able to track down where I originally got my template from, so I'm left with these rather alarming black and white exclamation points and no background.

So if you're reading and see one of these exclamation points, don't worry. It's more painful for me than it is for you. And I pinky-promise it's not some kind of bug attacking your computer.

If any of you know a good blog-design site or person (for cheap - I don't make any money off of this blog), I'd definitely welcome your suggestions!

So, instead of reading an awesome post, you should consider writing one for Life Before the Bucket! I'm running pretty low on guest posts for our "Living to the Fullest" series, so if you've been thinking about submitting an idea for a post, now is the time to do it!

In the meantime, I'll be waiting to hear from you and working on finding a new blog template.

I hope you have a fantastic Thursday! Let me know how your day is going in the comments section!