Positively Positive

Disclaimer for all those sick of hearing about Oscar – although it kind of refers to it, this post is not about his trial, his guilt or his anything really. 

We are currently experiencing a hectic time in South Africa.  The rape stats and this whole Oscar fiasco are taking up most of South Africa’s thinking space.  It’s hectic.  Very hectic.  So hectic that it seems like we are unable to continue with our lives properly.  Unfortunately it seems like I have succumbed to the media hype and become a little bit of a groupie to the whole thing, hanging on every tweet from “reliable sources” about every little detail of the case.

I thought he was guilty.  I thought there was no doubt.  But now I find that most of the “facts” that were represented in the media (both social and actual “news” websites) was all wrong.  I’m just thinking of the “bloody cricket bat” and “skull crushed” to name a few of the lies that were pushed onto us by the media.

It got me thinking how we naturally jump to conclusions with just a hint of information – not only in the media but in our own personal lives too.  How often do we read/do/see something and automatically think that it must mean the worst possible thing?  Or read/see something about what someone else did and compare ourselves to them and then envy them.  That’s just a few examples of how I let myself get negative about my life.  What’s really terrible in this whole thing is that you start to forget the amazing things that you are blessed with and just focus on what you don’t have/do etc.

When I started this year I didn’t start with “resolutions” because seriously they suck and just make you feel like more of a failure when you don’t make it.  But what I did do was make a sort of promise to myself that I would take on a new word for the year…  “POSITIVE”.  This word seems easy, but let me tell you when you put it into practise it’s flipping hard.  Really, really flipping hard.

Only posting statuses, updates and blog posts that are positive, not only in what they refer to, but how they make others feel too.  It’s so flipping hard that I am sure that I have failed on a few occasions especially on those days were lack of sleep blur the lines of what “should be said”.  Often I’ve picked up my phone, opened my status written something – deleted it, written something else – deleted it, had another go but ended up deleting it as well until I just put my phone down and leave it.  Sometimes saying nothing is better.

You may not agree and you may enjoy reading everyone’s complaints on every social media platform in the world but I am kind of over it.  Here’s to the rest of the year filled with a more positive outlook on life.  Like even just today I am grateful that at least one of my kids are sleeping all the way through the night (see, it’s better than saying that two of them seem like they will never ever sleep the whole night in their own beds and that their Mommy is going to go cray cray with sleep loss)!

So on that light-hearted note I’ll leave you with more pictures of my gorgeousness that I hope to bring up to be a loving, positive, Christ-filled man.  (You may notice that they are shocking similar to the post from the other day – but these ones are portrait…  See what I’m saying about 3rd children!)