Kestryl's Quiet Little Spot

This is something that has been bothering me lately.... how do you deal with negativity. Lately I've had a lot of negativity with people in my life lately, both professional and personal. One thing I know from past experience is you sure can't combat it with more negativity. That's just a downward spiral that you really don't want to get into.

So the question remains, what to do??? I've tried my best to be positive and supportive but that only works some of the time, and sometimes it can backfire. When a person is really negative, the last thing they want to hear is that "everything is going to be OK" or something like that. They have decided that they are upset, and everything is NOT OK, and it sure as heck is going to stay that way.

Something I read on my Priest's blog was that sadness is like a prison with no back wall that people voluntarily walk into. Negativity is much the same, it's a jail that you have committed your self to and are the prisoner and jailer at the same time. This makes it much harder to get out, because you have to convince the jailer in you that it's time to let it go... you've paid your dues, and then some....

So I'm back to, what do I do??? Now comes for the fun part. Let me preface this by saying that I'm a fairly new Christian, so when I talk about religion I still feel as if (excuse my French) I'm talking out of my ass, but I'm going to do it anyways. The best thing I've come up with so far is prayer... yes that's right, prayer. God is amazing, there is nothing that he can't do and no problem big or small that he can't fix. The most amazing part of it all... he not only can fix, but truly cares about my (and your) small and insignificant problems. Just that knowledge should be able to keep you from being negative!

But then, how do I impart that knowledge to people who either;

• Don't know that God truly does love and care are about even the smallest little problems in your life (if you'll let him).
• Know of God's love but have forgotten, or choose not to open themselves to God's love because they are being so negative.

Now at work I'm stuck, I can't really start approaching people and talking about God (if they approach me, outside of business hours, that's another matter ;). So that leaves me with my personal life, and there it can be just as confusing. On one hand I have people in my life who are atheists, pagans (their choice of title, not mine), or have confused being agnostic with being religious. On the other hand I have people who are Christian, but I still don't feel comfortable talking to about religion.

For example, take my wife (please... j/k;). She is Christian, has been, always will be, and has wanted very much for me to be a Christian for a long time. Now that I am however I just don't know what to say. If there is something that I think she needs some time to pray on... I just don't know what or how to say that. I still feel like the atheist/agnostic who at one point said to her, "Why don't you pray or something...", yes I actually said that.

So where does that leave me.... right now, it leaves me with a whole lot of personal prayer. I pray for the negative people in my life to see the joy that is all around them. I pray that I will find a way to reach these people, and help them... in the way they need to be helped. I pray for strength... strength to be a better person, friend, father or husband, and strength to not become negative myself.

I know God is listening... I know he's helping in ways that I can't even see yet, and I know he will continue to help, as long as I let him. I'm seeing the tip of the iceberg and I know that there is so much more..... more than I could ever imagine.