Turning Manure Into Roots
For James. And for the days that feel like manure.
Kindness lives on...
James hugged me up
when I fell down —
a friend time revealed
as true.
Whenever I remember him,
like today,
on his unplanned
anniversary,
I smile.
Emotions ripple
across my mind,
always recalling
one word:
kind.
What an effect
kindness has on a life —
an act so pure
it spreads like a knife.
Thank you James
for living on
in your soul acts.
I’ll see you today
in nature,
before the next sunrise
retracts.
✨ SOUL ACT WISDOM: Turning Manure Into Roots
Today is heavy.
Six years since my best friend James Box left this world from a brain aneurysm. No warning. No goodbye that made sense. Just… gone.
And if you’ve ever lost someone like that, you know what today smells like.
Manure. 🦍💩
Grief is messy. It’s raw. It sticks to your boots and your brain and makes you want to stay inside where it’s safe. Agoraphobia brain loves days like this. “See? The world takes people. Stay home.”
But James wouldn’t have it.
He was a hugger. A picker-upper. The kind of friend who saw you on the floor and didn’t give you a lecture about getting up. He just got down there with you until you were ready.
So here’s the seed I’m planting today, from that manure:
LOVE ✿ EVERYTHING ✿ TODAY
Even the days that hurt.
Not because the pain is good. It isn’t. But because he was good. And kindness doesn’t die when the body does. It cuts through — spreads like a knife — into every life it touched. Including mine. Including yours, now that you’re reading this.
How to grow something from grief 🌱
- Feel it without the funnel
No one’s selling you “5 Steps to Heal.” This is not a bypass. Cry if it comes. Swear if you need to. Manure is honest. Pretending it’s fertilizer yet doesn’t help. Just let it be what it is first. - Find the one word
For me today, it’s kind. James = kind. When emotions ripple, I grab that word like a root. What’s your one word for the person you miss? Say it out loud. Plant it. - Do one Soul Act before sunset
James lives on in soul acts. So I’ll take one today: I’ll walk outside, even if anxiety says no. I’ll look for him in nature — in the way the light hits the leaves, in the quiet before sunrise retracts.
Your Soul Act might be texting someone “you matter.” Or making tea. Or hugging yourself up when you fall down.
It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be real. - Remember: awareness is everything
That ache in your chest? That’s not weakness. That’s proof you loved. That’s indigestion 😲 or maybe it’s awareness?
Grief is love with nowhere to land. So we give it soil.
Look. Life gets tough.
Most people wade through days like today seeing only manure.
This is for ALTERNATIVE SOULS who want roots, not routes.
James taught me that kindness outlives us.
So I’m not preaching today. I’m seeding.
If you’re knee deep in loss right now — you can grow through this. But you don’t have to do it alone. We can join souls and overcome this together.
Thank you, James.
For living on.
I’ll see you in the quiet. In the kind. In the sunrise.
🤔🌱🌹✨
Ready to awaken✨ TODAY?
Small step: Write the name of someone you miss. Then write one word that was them.
That’s a 🌱 seed.
Now go water it with one small kind act.
That’s how we turn manure into 🌹 growth.
That’s how kindness lives on.
✨ With Love ✨
CJB today xoxo
Songs • Words • Images • Soul Acts
PS: Here was my post about James from last year or was it the year before?
🦍💩 Soul acting — to boldly grow
where no seed has grown before 🌱🌹✨
#LET
