Negative Vs Positive

Today I had an interesting conversation......I will just say with a neighbor. I was driving in the driveway coming home from the grocery store and saw this person across the street....she was out for a walk. It had been quite some time since I had conversation with her, so I made the effort to say hi and this began our conversation. With no exaggeration this person did not say one positive commment the whole time we were talking. She dove right in, telling me her husband never does this...blah blah blah and if he doesn't move this out of the house soon blah balh balh and then she went on about how her bedroom was so small and never enough room for this and that blah blah. Point taken...everyone has a bad day and needs someone to vent to I understand but this was one in many other conversations like this.
I began feeling quite uncomfortable, answering with comments like...Oh really, gosh, I'm sorry, Oh, Oh, and again Oh. I tried to change the subject and mentioned that I was anxious to get going on our yard next spring etc. She dove right in again.... I won't bore you with the detail of her next round of negativity. This lasted for 30 minutes. I wanted to end the conversation and run away. I excused myself and said I needed to get the groceries inside. I wallked away exhausted, this conversation took so much out of me. Have you ever had such a conversation?
This little episode got me to thinking about how negative comments affect others and how important it is to find the positive in life. I know I can work on being more positive in my life. Shortly after that, Mark came home.... we were going to lunch. As we walked through the garage to get in his car I noticed how messy the garage was. Mark had come home from the hunts and pretty much left everything out for the next hunting event. I wanted to say..."Oh my gosh this garage is so messy with your stuff, you should clean it up!!" I quickly caught my tongue and just walk to the car without commenting. I'm sure our little lunch date could of began with a lot of negativity back and forth had I thrown that comment at him. Lesson learned!!

"Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching?"
~Dennis and Wendy Mannering~

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.
~Francesca Reigler~