Skip to main content

Positive Negatives

For the last few days and the previous three posts I have been acknowledging and thanking people for their influences on my life.

Yesterday I received a comment from a friend which at first I perceived as being negative and the comment shook my confidence a bit. Confidence in this challenge!

"Facebook is such a fake universe and no one needs it to express their appreciation or love. just do it direct."

This played on my mind and made me question if what I was doing here had any real impact. They are not wrong in what they say, and that is the exact motivation behind why I am doing this! It's not the only motivation either.

Some people can't do this directly, perhaps because of the pandemic and they can't get with the person they want to talk to, or that they may not be in touch with the named person other than through Facebook and other social media, or, and more importantly, they haven't found the strength to do it physically yet but are working on it and this is their first step towards that.

It's about being vulnerable after all. I said that at the start and that hasn't changed. Thanks to my friend, their comment gave me the chance to sit back and reflect on it a while and allow myself to admit that this is MY first step back to being able to appreciate and love people in person again, something I have found myself no longer able to do over the course of the last 20 odd years!

Over that period of time I lost who I was and I did that by listening to some others and following some other people's advice, which oftentimes was misguided or misinformed, or just plain wrong, but your post has helped me realise this!

No! That's incorrect. Your post has helped me find the courage to say that I'm back on track to striving to be a better person again. Not better than you. Not better than anyone else. But better than who I was yesterday!

I purposely haven't mentioned your name as I don't want to embarrass you or call you out but I sincerely, honestly and genuinely feel my appreciation for what you have said. Thanks mate. It helps a lot! 🙂

I'm setting the challenge for you all to lean into your vulnerability and give appreciation to someone else, if this is something you feel you cannot do but want to!

Have a great day and I'll be back with another name soon x 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What did she say?

Here's another appreciation/ acknowledgement post as promised/ warned.  These two people shall remain nameless, as I think it is better for them that way.  As a teen, I, along with pretty much every teenager that ever was or is, was feeling very, very self conscious. However I, like some others, found it went a little deeper.  I hated myself. I wasn't good enough. I was too fat, I was ugly, I wasn't smart enough, I was too poor etc etc.  I knew this to be true. People constantly told me so. Time and again. I mean why would they lie about that stuff? This was not just in my teenage years but ever since I started school in the UK, and even some of the teachers would join in. It even continued into my adult life. It was all around me.  This constant negative chatter from others, helped me build a very negative view of myself.  Then two totally trivial conversations gave me a glimpse that not everyone saw me the way others saw me, or the way I saw myself. That ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Better The Devil

Well it's a new day and a new appreciation post.  I can't tell you how much the one about David - the one I was reluctant to share - has affected so many people from my Facebook friends list they reached out to me about the post.  It reached people in ways I never expected, and in ways some of the people reaching out never expected.  So once again David's actions had a profoundly positive effect. Thanks again David and thanks to all those who reached out to me about it.  As promised though, here is something a little lighter than my previous two posts.  This coming Saturday is Eurovision. 28 years ago it was held on the 19th of May, the day after my birthday, and it gave me one of the best presents I have ever had.  Sonia Evans was our representative for the UK. For those of you that don't know, Sonia was signed to PWL records and was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman.  Just like Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley. And if you don't know who they are th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Three Sisters

Last post was Mom's turn this one is for my sisters. So to start off I have 3 sisters, well technically 4 and 2 of them are called Tracey. Confused? Yep so was I, but I only know 3 so this is for them. I realised from the last post that whilst I pinpoint one or two things that I have learned from people, it's never an exhaustive list. And the list here is not exhaustive either.  I am the youngest! The only boy! I have been teased, scared half to death and left in a laundry basket so that they can go out with their friends, but I have also had hugs, and kisses and felt pride from them 🤮 The eldest is Debra Churchill  My "little" big sister.  What I have learned the most from Debbie is that it is much cooler to be yourself than to try to be someone who you are not and it's perfectly okay to love you are! She's also taught me how to embarrass others - in a fun way - which of course I have used on my kids. Debbie if you're not sure what I'm talking about,...
Post a Comment
Read more