Poison

There is a Spanish proverb that says, ““The busy man is troubled with but one devil; the idle man by a thousand.” This is not the sort of preachy saying I normally pay any mind to. In fact, if someone said it to me, I’d probably tune out to anything that followed. But.

There’s been a lot of negative mojo swirling around me lately. To cancel it out, I’ve been packing my evenings and weekends with as much fun as I can handle. My sewing lessons have been going gangbusters. I’ve made countless napkins and a few potholders. (Next up are ironing board covers, curtains and baby bibs!) I’ve been doing a great job of being social, which is not always my strength. And I’m doing what I think is most important when you’re trying to shake things up – novel things. The speaking event with Feist and Martin de Thurah at the Contemporary Arts Center last week, some glasswork lessons with Wonder Boy next week and a night out a new local bar / brewery. My goal is that my keeping busy, I won’t be as troubled by the negativity going around me during other parts of my days.

I’m exhausted from so much doing, but I think the plan is working. I’m much happier.

That said, I still have so much negativity around me. Negative people I cannot avoid. And I don’t know what to do with that. I try to help make things more positive, but after a while, that’s exhausting. I remove myself from the situation as much as possible. I tune things out when I can. I try to be pretty obvious about the fact that I won’t engage in too much negative talk. What else is there to do? Negativity can be like a poison and I want an antidote.