jakorte's blog

Negatives can be positive.

In Humanities class we were instructed to change the arm we wear our watch on. If you wore it on left, you were to switch it to the right and vice versa. The point was to disrupt our routine, draw attention to automatic reactions, and make us more aware. I indeed found myself continuing to check my left wrist for the time, even though my watch was on my right wrist.

Last weekend I changed my bedroom setup. My new neighbors are noisier than my old neighbors, so I moved the bed from near the windows to the opposite side of the room. Actually, I reversed the entire room. Not a life-changing event, but enough to change my perspective at least twice a day. Once when I wake up facing the windows, and again when I go to bed glancing down the long hall to the den.

Turning things around, creating negatives of our prior routines, mirroring our perspectives, soundly alerts us to how stagnant we have become. Acknowledging that, I’ve decided to change another part of my routine, as well: my prayer routine. I’ve been waiting until the end of the day to set my thoughts to GOD, for the goodness I have received and in the prayers I have for others.

Morning prayers take a lot more thought for me. The prayers I have for others remain the same. However, I am no longer able to inventorily thank GOD for the day’s events. I must pre-thank him for guiding me through a day of events yet unknown. That leaves out the possibilities of specific gratitude, and causes a more specific step of faith. Beginning my day with trust is a challenge I have not quite mastered. I find myself falling back on gratitude for the prior day, and then asking for more of the same.

Still, this purposeful negative has developed into a positive. Recognition of rote behavior, realization of the differences between beginnings and ends, and devoting myself to uncomfortable changes: all positively negatives. All positively worth pursuing.

"O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.” Isaiah 33:2

In this issue: Stop Worrying (part 2 & 3), Photographic Negatives, Positivity at Work, Negative Calories, Negativity Word Challenge (I made 55 words from the word "negativity", can you?)

Now posted: Blow Pop Man - Transformer! Humor, That's Random.