I had a lunch and dog-walking date with a new friend last week on a gloriously sunny (unseasonable) June day. We hurtled ourselves down the block through conversations about parenting and feminism, justice and writing, laughing and marveling at shared sentiments. We sat down to a lovely lunch of salads with another friend under the shade on a tree-lined sidewalk and the discussion was as satiating as the food, filling us up and nourishing us with the camaraderie of friends who share passions.
As it came time to meander back, the conversation turned to a more challenging subject with a history of hurt feelings and misunderstanding and while the two of us took care to tread lightly and with solid intent, the tone was certainly different. At one point, T stopped and cocked her head to listen.
“Is that? Yes, it is!” she crowed as two children popped out onto the sidewalk from their front yard. These kids, a young boy and his younger sister, were T’s neighbors and had just closed up their lemonade stand. They were headed to buy a slice of pizza and some ice cream with the cash they had made and stopped to introduce themselves to me, all sunshine and smiles and enthusiasm. We spent a few minutes chatting with them and when they had moved on, T turned to me and said,
“No negativity! See? I told myself that whenever something starts to get negative, something positive will show up to take its place. We were talking about something hard and then, boom, the kids showed up to interrupt it. The world is a marvelous place!”
I loved her perspective and joy at having run into her neighbors and thought about what she said for several days afterward. What a fabulous idea – that we can choose no negativity. What if I tell myself that every time something starts to turn negative, something positive will show up? It speaks to my belief in balance (I am a Libra, after all), and the tendency of energy to come back to equilibrium. What if that is what always happens and I simply have to tune myself in to it?
It’s worth a shot.
