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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 

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