I’ve never made a summer bucket list.
Creating a list of things I want to do or places I want to go has always felt like added pressure – and summer is a time of year that I long for less pressure, not more.
What I started doing several years back was collecting ‘sparks of life’ – tiny, unplanned moments where my senses were so filled with joy that I was temporarily free from fear, comparison, angst, and sadness.
Even during the stormiest summers of pain and loss, I could find sparks of life.
Whenever these moments happened, I added them to a numbered list in my phone. This way, I could go back and relive these moments during difficult times.
This summer, I collected 32 sparks. Today I want to share two of them with you. I believe they have the potential to create a warm, steady glow that will sustain you through fall’s trials and transitions.
These are my spark stories…
Spark #3 happened when I texted a friend whose 94-year-old mom began hospice care. I was bringing over some homemade soup and asked there was anything I could pick up along the way.
“It’s a bit of an odd request,” my friend texted back. “But could you go to the local farmers market and get some tomatoes? Mom loves fresh tomatoes more than anything in the world, and they have some that are perfectly ripe! I just spoke to an employee named Amy who will help you pick them out.”
Getting to meet Amy was a spark. So was learning how to tell if a tomato is ripe. But the most notable spark came in a text from my friend a few weeks later.
“Rachel, Mom is holding steady! I can’t believe it! Never underestimate the power of a fresh tomato!”
In my phone notes, I recorded:
Spark #3 – TOMATO JOY
Note to self: Make the odd requests. Ask the brave asks. They add life to our days.
My second spark story came from a toy gifted to my cat, Banjo. When we go out of town, our young neighbor, Emma, comes to our house with her mom to care for him. Unlike her reserved cats at home, Banjo allows Emma to brush him, kiss his head, even rub his belly.
When Emma came across a unique cat toy while on vacation, she asked her mom if she could get it for Banjo. The toy was called Cat Dancer and something amazing happened when I presented it to him.
My senior cat with arthritis (and a bit of extra padding) jumped several feet into the air trying to “catch” the cardboard target that mimicked a flighty moth (an insect he gave up trying to catch five years ago).
Even more amazing was that spirited response happened every single time the toy emerged.
The instant transformation from geriatric cat to playful kitten was a sight to behold, and my daughters and I delighted in it every single day this summer.
In my phone notes, I recorded:
SPARK #12: DANCING CAT
Note to self: You are never too old to stop playing. Find the right toys. They add life to our days.
As I was collecting summer sparks, I was getting heat in my professional life due to sales numbers that were “expected” to be higher at this time.
Nothing like external pressure to squelch the light.
That’s when I knew I’d been holding on to a quote from author James Clear for good reason. In an email newsletter, he’d written:
How should you measure your days?
It’s easy to measure your days in dollars earned or tasks completed, but there are other units of measurement to consider:
• What would you do today if you wanted to maximize laughter?
• What would you do today if you wanted to maximize time outside?
• What would you do today if you wanted to maximize peace of mind?
What unit of measurement serves you best right now?
James Clear
I hadn’t been able to answer that question until it became clear what unit of measurement was not serving me this summer, the one being pushed upon me by a marketing team.
This numerical measurement of success was superficial, fleeting, and insatiable. And its presence threatened my sparks of life, a unit of measurement that was helping me:
connect with my young adult daughters…
nourish my body and show up for friends…
be present and grateful…
create some of the best writing of my life.
And just in case I needed confirmation that numbers don’t reflect true success, there was Spark #24 and 30:
SPARK #24: APARTMENT BOOKS
“Today when we were moving Natalie into her very first apartment, I opened the box labeled ‘living room’ to find just five books she brought from home and wanted to display. Two of them were books I had written. Natalie once said my words help her feel calm and centered when she is anxious and worried.”
SPARK #30: COLLEGE ESSAY
“Avery asked me to read a rough draft of her college application essay. There, in her tiny, distinctively ‘Avery’ handwriting, I saw ‘Noticer’ – a term I used to reframe a negative comment on her kindergarten report card – had become a vital part of her identity. Embracing this positive trait as she navigated years of medical and emotional challenges has inspired her to pursue a career in the medical field.”
In response to these very special sparks, I wrote this Note to Self:
Do not let outside pressure stifle your light. Keep capturing those moments when your senses come alive… where fear, comparison, angst, and sadness cannot thrive. These moments add life to your days… and love to your legacy.
Here’s to an autumn that glows with what matters most.
My hand in yours,
Rachel
⛰️ My friends, helping people identify and reclaim what lights them up brings me immense joy. This is the essence of my Soul Shift workshop that I will be teaching IN ONE MONTH at the Art of Living Retreat Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Oct 4-6. Tuition for the in-person program is $345, and you may choose to stay off site in beautiful Boone, NC if that better suits your budget. This year is a particularly small group, so if you desire a more personal experience with me, please don’t wait to register here. There are other workshops going on at the center that weekend and space is limited.
🌳 If the in-person workshop is not feasible, I hold supportive monthly Zoom sessions in Rachel’s Treehouse, a cozy space to read my words and experience community connection. Through monthly Zoom sessions and weekly essays, I share my sparks and my stumbles, the books I am learning from, as well as personal responses to requests I receive for guidance and encouragement. Membership is $3.75 a month – about the same as a cup of coffee – and many tell me the treehouse brings SPARKS to their days.
Here are some of the essays I wrote in Rachel’s Treehouse this summer. Access the full archives by joining today.🩵
