Why I Still Love Inspirational Bucket Lists

Bucket List

I made my first inspirational bucket list for Valentine’s Day in 2021. It was a collaboration with my mama who is the most creative person I know. We started the bucket lists because she has a lifetime of scrumptious recipes that we wanted to seasonally share. My mom currently is taking care of my grandma who has Alzheimer’s and also loving being a grandma to babies again, but she still really loves to bake. You can find her “artwork” on IG at TastesDivineSweets The pic below was our very first Inspirational Bucket List post.

On my side of the fence, I share ways to help women live out love, self care, creativity and hospitality in every season. Specifically, inspirational bucket lists help me to “list” distinct ways to grow good seeds in oneself and out in the community. Below is a short explanation of where the four “bucket list” inspirations come from and why I think living them out contributes to joyful, peaceful, hopeful living.

LOVE

Love is about sharing acts of kindness and encouragement daily, weekly and in big ways from time to time. This outward love comes from the deep love of the Father who first loved us. It’s not possible to genuinely receive God’s love without also being filled with time, energy and gifts to serve others. You will always find several simple ways in my inspirational bucket lists to love others.

SELF-CARE

The bottom line is that most women find it easy to lose sight of the handful of things that make them strong and fill them up. Most of the women I know have an easier time with output than input. Poet Amena Brown gave me insight that the golden rule – – Love your neighbor as yourself – – implies that you must first love yourself in order to love others well. You will always see lots of ways to reconnect with yourself. The end game here is to be revived so that you can continue to do whatever it is you love to do.

CREATIVITY

Creativity is for everyone. Yes, you! Author and Spiritual Director Emily P. Freeman taught me that there a million little ways to live out art. Art doesn’t necessary require a paint brush or easel. We live out art in our vocation, through relationships, parenting, hobbies. Whatever you were made to do, that’s your art. The problem is that, as life goes on, we usually drop creativity down on the list of priorities. In that manner, we lose some of the fullness we were made to experience. My inspirational bucket lists invite you to linger again with creativity so that you can find your way back to living with “lightbulb” moments – – lightbulbs that bring on more joy in your every day.

HOSPITALITY

You can find versions of hospitality in the Danish lifestyle of Hygge, Cozy Minimalist living/decor and all sorts of social supper clubs. I think all of these versions and the hundreds of others have exceptional value. There is a ton of joy that comes from hosting friends or couples for a potluck dinner party in your home. Small acts of kindness like sending encouraging snail mail cards or delivering a basket of food are significant components of hospitality – – which is really just a way to help someone feel loved and seen. There is no real formula for hospitality. In fact, I wrote a whole blog about my hospitality failures and wins. The heart of hospitality is that it flows out of a God’s love. We give joy and find a measure of it from loving others through hospitality.

SUMMER BUCKET LIST

Two years ago, I created this Summer Bucket List. That year, I printed the Bucket List and mailed it to about 200 of you. As you know, I love snail mail and I love the idea that maybe the Bucket List could help even one of you find more joy, peace and hope in your every day. I revisited the bucket list this summer. There are a few things I decided to do, again.

Independence Day Mani

I decided on the red, white and blue mani. I was rather excited about this and it turns out that the manicurist was also. She took pics before I left last Thursday. Double bucket list win.

SUMMER LOVE STORY NOVEL

I decided not to read a summer love story novel. Instead, I chose to watch all three Divergent movies. My daughter and I watched the first one again on the plane home from vacation. I always liked the love story between Tris and Four. In May of 2021, I put a few life lessons in place, which allows me to choose this over that, even if I once wrote a list about that. You can read the keep it simple rules I wrote for myself. I know they will resonate with you.

SUMMER GET TOGETHER

I decided not to invite friends over for Kitchen Sink ice cream or for mocktails. However, I am inviting friends over to make Summer Time Capsules. If you are local and are interested, please send me a message at skatz@skatzlaw.com and perhaps you can join us.

THE MAYBES

The rest of my bucket choices are maybes related to things I used to do. Do I welcome them back? Is my life too different now? Do I let these pass without sticking to me? What is my Best Yes? Even small things take time and resources. Small decisions matter in the big picture.

  • Do I get involved again in one of the social justice organizations I financially support?
  • Do I try again to learn the art/skill of Creative Lettering?

STAY IN THE MOMENT

It’s only July. But there are probably fall decorations in Michael’s and Target already. We could be tempted to jump ahead to fall and lose sight of all that God has for us this summer. Push back on the temptation to leave summer early. Take in these days because you won’t get them again. Take what you may need or want from the summer bucket list, or write your own. No matter what, stay here in the summer moment.

Questions to Help Stay in Summer

  • Which of the four areas could I use the most right now? Love, Self Care, Creativity or Hospitality?
  • Chose 2-3 bucket list items in the area that would bring the most peace, hope and joy.
  • Take a look at your choices. Now, choose one more that is outside your interest or comfort zone.
  • Pick an end date to complete the bucket list items.

Feel free to share this post or download the bucket list right here. (page one, page two)

If you want to look at the other bucket lists, check them out here.

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How to Plan an Unexpected Ideal “Me” Day

New Year Discovery

Never in 1000 years would I have thought I would title a post with the words Me Day. I am in favor of self care, life giving routines and loving ourselves as God loves us. But Me Day? It sounds very unJesus.

I come from a long history of women who wipe themselves out. We show up, serve and give the shirt off our backs. We play that record over and over again. Mind you, that is not a mantra. That’s a pattern of self care disaster, burn out and hidden bitterness.

That’s the context in which I have a hard time taking the good medicine of a Me Day.

I know I am not in this boat alone. Most of you reading this have an excellent sense of how to care for others. In comparison, you have a much less tangible sense of how to love yourself, especially via a Me Day.

The Evidence

For example, any time a woman I know is asked to give gift ideas for her b-day, radio silence follows. Most of the time it takes hours or days to receive a reply to that question. When the answer comes, she starts with, I really don’t want any gifts except to be with the ones I love but if you must have a list, here goes. I suspect it takes some time to settle with the idea of making known what you desire – – even if it’s as simple as making a b-day gift list, or a Me Day.

How My Me Day Began

This past Sunday morning, I was lingering in the dark with indecision moving about my mind. Instead of staying there, I am learning to skip over my low grade anxiety, overwhelm and indecision. I’ve concluded that I have grown out of early morning anxiety but my body and mind haven’t yet learned a more peaceful default. Therefore, instead of attending to my low grade anxiety, I’ve started asking this question to God:

What are You doing today?

This is a new conversation opener for me. I figure that if I ask the only other person present in the dark with me what He’s doing today, I will be lead to INSPIRATION over my low grade anxiety, overwhelm and indecision. After you read my notes below, I hope you try your version of this question. The switch appears to be making progress when it comes to giving my tingling chest and overactive mind something positive to inquiry.

The first time I pondered the question – – what are you doing today? – – I switched gears and questioned whether God even had the time to attend to the eight billion of us on planet earth. Was he splitting us up over the seven days of the week, thirty days of the month, over each quarter? I know this can’t be true. But, what the heck? There aren’t enough hours in the day for all of us?? Plus running the natural world!? The real time necessary presents a problem for our finite planet.

As I settled into my thoughts and prayers, the image of a roaring ocean wave came to mind. The wave was so big, wide and powerful that it encompassed the past, present and future in an exceedingly perfect motion forward. The wave symbolized God’s capacity to care for each one of us, every single day. Simultaneously and Without Pause. The breadth, power and might of His Spirit is more than enough to carry the day for the eight billion of us on planet earth. Plus holding together and orchestrating the natural world.

Actually, This is How My Me Day Began

The next time I asked this question  – – what are you doing today? – – the concept of the Me Day came to mind. In other words, I asked God my question and he answered by giving me something good to do. That’s what God is doing today – – giving me/us something good to do.

As I said, I initially I resisted the concept because Me Day doesn’t feel very Jesus worthy. However, as I rested in the dark this past Sunday morning, God brought to my mind my output over the last week.

I served my business, my family and my friends. I stuck like glue to my productivity plans. I took care of my body. I planted seeds spiritually for growth. In the end, I decided that God’s direction was more true than whatever I felt was true. I went in the direction of the Me Day. To be clear, God didn’t ordain an itemized list, but he sent me in a direction. His direction was a good direction, and Sunday was a good day. I am writing you a list of the little things I did this Sunday at the bottom of this post. You can download the list and write your own.

After all of this, if Me Day still sounds selfishly awful to you, spend some time lingering in the dark and ask God what he is up to today? You may be completely blessed and totally surprised by what He has in store for you – – if you will only ask and listen.

My Me Day

  • I cleared my home desk and drawers and looked at all the things that make me feel happy, accomplished and inspired.
  • I reinstated my subscription to a monthly gift I love to receive from an artist in Colorado.
  • I let my hair dry in the sun.
  • I unexpectedly ran into a Warehouse Clearance and bought my college kid an Easter gift.
  • I had lunch with my daughter.
  • I bought new walking sneakers which is something I said I would do after my second service trip to Mexico, but hadn’t yet.
  • I had a hot Turmeric, oat milk Latte.

Click This Link to Download the Me Day List to Write Your Own

Love,

Sasha

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How to Empower Your Everyday with a Seasonal Bucket List

Bucket List New Year Discovery

Today is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:18

Isn’t that the truth?

Isn’t it also true that most days are made of small movements and small actions that may or may not feel worthy of rejoicing?

Both are true.

Since both are true, I have a tried and true practice to share with you. My bucket lists get to the heart of everyday joy and gladness – – even when you have no great reason to rejoice or be glad.

Bucket Lists!

With bucket lists, we can intentionally choose to lean into Psalm 118 and build into our lives authentic happiness. We can light up the mundane, spark hope from burdens and shine rays of light into any day, week or month – – with the simple practice of creating and living out bucket lists.

I create bucket lists based on the small things I may overlook or not include in my daily planner or in life in general. My four buckets are love, self care, creativity and hospitality. Here are my reasons why.

Love

I chose love because I never want to lose sight of loving others. Most of the time, expressing love to someone else takes the focus off yourself and expands your perspective. Whatever may be taking center stage in your own life can take a step back while you direct care to someone else.

Self Care

In the same way I don’t want to lose sight of loving others, I don’t want to neglect myself either. I have been down that awful road of neglect and desire to forget not the value of a strong mind and body. Self care is an essential element to my bucket lists.

Creativity

I have a taxing career. Law lends itself to deadlines and conflicts and has little mercy for human error. Moreover, work does a good job of yelling louder than the other areas of life. For that reason, I must make space for creativity. My joy comes from creating, sharing and filling needs in creative ways. My creative outlets allow positive energy to flow into my career and the rest of my life. Hence, including creativity as an element of my bucket list keeps me moving toward a balanced life.

Hospitality

Last, I believe deeply that Jesus was the most hospitable person who ever lived. He welcomed others from the heart. As follows, wherever he was, he gave invitations. To dinner. To fish. To spend time talking. To follow dreams. To encourage. To see. To walk. To preach. To make disciples. Heartful hospitality is one of the ways I seek to mirror Jesus. I use bucket lists to help me pursue that end.

How To Create a Powerful Bucket List

When I begin to write a bucket list, I start with the four buckets of love, self care, creativity and hospitality and intertwine them with the season of the year. I search for inspiration on Pinterest, in the books that I read and in the conversations I have. I sit with a journal and colorful pen. I scribble, cross out and write some more until I have a working list. I usually have 4-5 items within each bucket. At that point, I organize the items so that the list is cohesive and distributed evenly among the buckets.

From there, I share with two or three friends to see what they think. After the feedback, I make a few changes and head to Canva to create a design.

Build Your Life with Bucket Lists

The truth is that not every day may lend itself to rejoicing and gladness. Despite that, we can lean into Psalm 118 and build happiness into our lives.

Today is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:18

As a practice, I clip my bucket list into my daily planner. I glance at the list from time to time and check off, with joy, the little things that I have done to make life sweet in every season.

Now that it’s the end of January, I’m sharing my bucket list progress update. More pics to come as I work through my New Year Bucket List.

Instead of buying your next bday gift,
handmake or bake the present
Choose a pretty piece of card stock paper
to write your 2023 Book List (This is my January book)
Fill a purse you don’t use with items a struggling woman needs and bless her!
Choose a growth area
and ask a friend to join you
in the journey for six weeks

Intentional joy matters. I would love to hear how you are pursuing joy in your own life. Share in the comments below or email me at sasha@sashaakatz.com.

If you missed the New Year Bucket List, here it is again.

Love,

Sasha

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It’s Time to Say #GoodbyeFall

Discover Fall

What a Fall it’s been!

If I am totally honest, I have struggled hard with constant low grade anxiety, some sadness and that mid-morning tired feeling that is, well, exhausting. I’m not without a pool of good reasons for the state of my heart and mind. Even so, it’s been a hard Fall.

My boy has been in Italy for almost four months. His absence is the equivalent of removing one of the strong rocks in my life. Perhaps that’s an odd thing for a mom to say about a child, but that’s who Quinn has been for me. He comes home soon, only to leave again in January. Woe is me as my nest empties.

At the office, I had several difficult issues to work through. As a professional woman with a commitment to excellence and desire to deliver a job well done, those obstacles were/are hard! I’m reminded by my wise counselor Dan not to personalize the professional – – what a difficult practice!

When my self talk and prayers hit bottom, I force myself to speak truth to myself.

I remind myself of my worth by framing my purpose in light of Jesus’ love and kindness toward me. It would be nice if my world served up everything I needed to feel secure and confident. But then I would have no need for God.

I keep a quote in my planner to counteract my performance oriented personality. I feel life rise up in me when I am kind to myself in this way.

There is no shame in being proud of the smallest amount of progress.

Morgan Harper Nichols

I acknowledge that my soul craves connection. In the big picture, we all need it. As an individual, connection keeps my head above water.

I try not to overlook the small things that life delivers when the big things are not in view. Small things like – Mom, will you bake banana bread? The girls love your recipe. Or, my mom and her husband picking up a Christmas tree for me and getting it on the stand.

Friends, this has been my hard Fall.

Despite myself, I pursued intentional joy during my hard Fall – – which brings me to my Fall bucket list share.

As you know, my bucket lists are intentional guides to help us live out love, self-care, creativity and hospitality in every season.

As we say #GoobyeFall, I am sharing with you some of the pics from my Fall bucket List adventure. I hope you enjoy the pics. I truly hope you too pursued joy this Fall.

Love always,

Sasha

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How to be Intentional

Discover Fall

There are thousands of ways to live intentionally. In fact, this is one of the widest action words I know. Intention can be applied to literally every area of our lives. Work, relationships, faith, parenting, friendships, fitness, mental well-being, hobbies/interests . . .When the options are so vast, intention can get lost in the opportunities.

Simply put, intentionality is taking specific actions toward an outcome that is important to you.

Intention can get lost in the action and execution when we don’t first determine what is important to us. We can adopt someone else’s list of intentional acts because they appeal to us. But if the purpose isn’t in line with our own purpose, intentional living ends up fizzling out or burning us out.

Why I Started Creating Bucket Lists

I started making bucket lists about two years ago. Previous to that, I had shifted from writing to women’s networking for a time. When it was time to shift back to writing, I lacked inspiration and my personal why. Creating bucket lists were a simple way to find what was important to me again.

My first bucket list was for Valentine’s Day. The list focused on loving others, self care, creativity and hospitality. You can look at that first bucket list and all of the others by clicking here.

Four Pillars

As I continued to create bucket lists for Spring, Summer, Fall, Christmas and the New Year, my why became clearer and clearer. My four personal pillars represent what is important to me.

  • Loving others is a biblical call and brings me joy.
  • Self care is an area I have neglected most of my adult life. However, I can confidently say no more after a lot of growth in the last few years.
  • Input and output in the way of creativity is what keeps my soul alive. I find that I am more fully myself and happy when I am honoring creativity in my life.
  • I think I could write a book on hospitality. In this brief bullet, I will share that my home with its furniture, accessories and food represents a valuable way to invite others into peace, comfort and enjoyment.

The List Must Bolster Wholeness, Not Productivity

My understanding of intentionality also grew as I wrote and lived out bucket lists. I learned that if, even for one minute, the list felt like a burden, then the list was no longer serving its purpose. If the list sneakily transitioned to a measure of productivity, then it was time to stop. Or, if the list negatively impacted my worth, then the list lost its worth. Make sense?

Bucket List Mantra

As I continued to create bucket lists, this became my mantra:

My bucket lists are about bearing fruit. They are intentional guides to help you live out love, self care, creativity and hospitality in every season.

Fall Bucket List Progress

This week on IG, I shared my Fall bucket list journey thus far. I’m sharing the pics here with more detail. Enjoy. Be inspired. Be intentional. Be bold with your love. Down below you will find a few questions to help you write your own seasonal bucket list.

Three of us pooled resources for this fall bundle of goodness. I dropped it off, sent a text that something was outside and hopped back in the car. We picked this friend because she is a giver and tends to isolate when she is in need of comfort, sisterhood and understanding. This was our way of delivering that to her while honoring her desire to seek solace within her home.

Dustyn is my monthly coffee date for the rest of the year. She doesn’t know that it’s life giving to me to serve her as she lives out a part of her story I see in myself. What a blessing to exercise vulnerability, laughter and sisterhood.

I love my green pumpkin. I also have a yellow and orange striped cutie with a green ribbon tied around the stem. I have been known to go overboard with my pumpkin purchases, but I am quite happy with these two this year.

We have fall scented candles in every room. Many of them are lit right now. The last three people who walked through the front door said, what smells so good? Bull’s eye!

If you flipped over this card, you would see that I have written three Christmas miracles I am praying for. I hope to write a few more. Some are big and some are small, but all mean something to me.

Discovery Questions: WRITE YOUR OWN BUCKET LIST

  1. Name four things that are important to you. You could include categories like I did or individual people, a specific hobby, something work related. Enjoy writing a few important things.
  2. Once you have a few important things, think about your season of life. You could choose the actual season as I did. Or you could note your life season such as empty nester, busy time at work, hurting in need of healing, overflowing season . . .
  3. Write down the season you chose in number two on the top of a sheet of paper. Below it, write the four things that are important to you.
  4. Now you are ready to write your bucket list. Be inspired by things that are important to you in the season of life you are in. Give yourself a time frame to live out your bucket list items.

Love,

Sasha

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An Invitation to Follow Your Call

Uncategorized

Dear sisters,

Before time began, God chose you for a calling that you only you can fulfill. God creatively spoke into you uncountable unique details to empower you and lead you to live, move and breathe in the calling He crafted for you. You were made for a purpose.

Even now, the spirit whispers to you.

Over the course of your life, you’ve known pieces of your calling. Similar to a quilt, the patches have come to you. Some of you dream dreams of who you were made to be. Some of you hear your calling spoken to you by others who see the gifts and talents you can’t see quite yet. Some of you have a heart cry to stand up for injustice but haven’t determined the path yet.

As you decipher the whisper of your calling, you also must choose to face the roadblocks or barriers to living out your calling. Some of us fear. Some of us must make hard choices to say yes to calling. Some will have to let go of control. Some of us must heal from trauma. Some of us will have to dig deep to replace lies with truth.

The foundation of calling is freedom. The only way to calling is to identify your roadblocks and move past them in a healthy way.

Time is like a quilt where the patches and pieces come over the seasons of your life. However, a season arrives when it is time to step into the masterpiece. The truth is you will not likely see every detail of your quilt. You will not know every detail of your calling. You will not be 100% confident that the time is now. But there comes a time when it is time to step into the masterpiece.

As you come to realize that your life has prepared you for your calling, you will need to craft a plan.

Transformational plans don’t come easy in our fast-paced culture.

In fact, darkness will send arrows with the intent to send you in every direction other than your calling. You will be offered valid excuses to tend to issues and projects that push out of your life your God given calling.

You will need a solid plan that includes self-care and community, and contributes to your inner peace.

The bottom line is

  •             It not easy to hear the whisper of God in our often loud, busy lives,
  •             Roadblocks are more easily identified in safe community covered in truth and wisdom; and,
  •             Designing a plan to follow your calling is a layered process that includes a healthy, whole self.

These bottom line realities fueled my passion to create the Follow Your Call class. My passion is to help women step into the masterpiece they were created to be.

Every woman has a God given calling. We simply need the time, space and direction to be who we were made to be.

The class is a Guided Journey because your calling is about the story of your life and how it leads you straight to your calling. The six week class includes live, original content, small group discussion, professionally recorded interviews, hands-on, in class projects and weekly at home discovery questions – – all pointing you to Follow Your Call.

The last class took place at the turn of the new year when most of us are in a time of reflection and goal setting. The next class is taking place at my most favorite time of year. Summer! For many of us, summer means a little more rest and a little less responsibility. Perhaps it is the perfect time for you to Follow Your Call!

If you can no longer ignore the whisper of God, then this class is for you.

If you feel like you know the whisper, but for whatever reason, you haven’t been able to put your call into action, this class is for you.

If you have found yourself in burn out over the years, and you want to make the decision to follow your call in a healthy, powerful way, this class is for you.

I look forward to journeying with you.

Follow the link to check out more details and to register.

Follow Your Call Class

Love,

Sasha

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