Our cups runneth over

So this writing, that has been brewing inside me over these last few weeks and is just now coming out clearly, conveniently coincides with the birth of this, a new year. Perhaps a subconscious choice or perhaps just the timing of life right now but still it is quite lovely that I can mark the changing of the calendar with this really cool idea about change.  Or rather, how we change.  Here goes…

There is this image, I cannot remember who shared this with me, but it has stayed with me and is such a great image.

The idea is that I am a cup.

And I spend my life filling myself with love and knowledge, with challenges and successes and finally, my cup overflows and this is when true change takes place.  This is when I feel that shift.  When I can then see something more clearly.  The world becomes different because I evolve into this new place I have been moving towards.

And then I start again, my cup now empty and ready to be filled with yet more to help me grow.

Now, quite often I fill my own cup, but just as often others fill my cup for me.  I meet someone and they say something that resonates with me, and my cup fills up a bit more.  And a bit more still with the next conversation I have.  A constant filling until I overflow.

This does not necessary mean that everyone I meet with fill my cup or that I am adding to theirs, but there is always that chance that any encounter consists of a pouring.  And so as my own cup fills, so perhaps do the cups of all the people in my life.  We fill our own cups and perhaps we fill each others and in this way we help each other learn and grow.   And that is a really lovely thing. 

Though sometimes it can be frustrating. Sometimes we feel like we are filling another’s cup but they act as though their cup is still half empty. You know who I am talking about, those people in our lives who just can’t get out of their own way.  We all have those friends, family members, workmates.  They struggle along, and along and along. And we find ourselves giving advice and advice and advice.  And….. nothing.  They are stuck.  And – ironically – they very likely will sometimes say this very same thing about us.

And it's frustrating because we give really amazing advice, we should probably heed some of it ourselves, and they are often sharing incredible words of wisdom with us and still sometimes they and we, can’t move forward.  No matter what we hear from each other.

But think if this, we all don't have the same size cup. 

And so, who am I, or you or anyone really, to say when your cup should be full; to say that the time is right for you to change and grow.  To move forward.  Just as I don't want anyone telling me that I have a time frame on my own evolution, I certainly have no right to rush you along on yours.

But I can help you, by filling your cup. 

It's a nice way to think.  A loving way to help each other; a way to give to others without an agenda.  Which is a great way to give.   And a way to not feel frustrated that perhaps I am not doing enough for you.  Because any kindness I show or knowledge that I share fills your cup some. 

And even if my small pouring does not seem to do anything, I remind myself that perhaps I filled your cup a bit.  As you likely did mine. So maybe that next person that comes along, their input will take our cups to full and overflowing.