Paint your Canvas

"Every time you put something positive into the universe, the world changes.  Your kindness invites miracles to show up, not just in your world, but in the whole world.  ~Unknown

A friend had this on their facebook wall this evening, it spoke to me.

I think you have figured out by now that I am into the idea of being positive and how important positivity is.  All too often we underestimate just how huge an impact being positive can have.

So often we try to be positive when people are watching, or when we are around others and think they will notice.  But then sometimes when we are just hanging out and aren't aware people are listening, we get negative.

What we don't always realize is how huge an effect that negativity can have.  On the people around us and on the people who inadvertently hear the negative attitudes.

People say things, putting others down, saying negative things about body types, sexual orientation, political views, etc.

So imagine, a kid who is struggling with their sexuality, trying to come to terms with who they are inside and looking for the strength to tell others about who they are.  Looking for affirmation that it is okay to be you.  They kid is walking down the hall, the street, the aisle in a store...wherever.  They are walking along and they overhear two adults, whom they know and respect, condemning people for their sexual orientation.  Do you think that kid is now going to feel comfortable coming out?

Those adults weren't talking to this person, they weren't intending a negative effect on this kid, but that is what they would accomplish.

I read on another friend's facebook page tonight that she was discussing Minnesota's proposed marriage amendment that is on the ballot this November.  Her words, "Why can kids get it and adults can't?"  Someone replied that it was because "kids don't have complicated notions about tradition and "sanctity" and other B.S.  They understand the fundamentals:  kindness and fairness."

I think both of these people had it right.  Kids don't care about someone's sexuality, they care about the kind of person they are, period.

Now I am most certainly NOT saying kids are always kind, far from it.  But they learn it from the adults around them.  Not directly, necessarily, but certainly they learn it from the adults.  We teach hate, we teach intolerance, we teach discrimination.

Kids are very good "parrots" of what they see and hear.  Messages that we don't always intend to teach them get taught daily.  For example, we have an election coming up in a month.  Elementary schools across the country will have their own "elections" to teach students what democracy is, how the voting system works, etc.

These elections in elementary schools don't tell us who the KIDS wants or what the KIDS believe, they tell us what the kids are hearing at home from their parents and grandparents.  I have said for years that if you want to know what a parent thinks politically, just listen to their kids.  Adults don't always share their political beliefs with the world, they hold it very close.  But at home they discuss their beliefs, their thoughts.  Kids don't have the same restraints in sharing their "beliefs."  Kids easily spew what they "believe" to their friends.

We think kids don't listen, that kids don't pay attention...NOT TRUE.  Kids are listening and learning every moment.  They are learning to be negative, they are learning to spread hate and intolerance.

Little kids, they are truly fresh little canvases - ready to be painted with positivity and kindness.  But we often stain them with negativity and hate.  We have such a great opportunity to paint them with kindness, with positivity, with tolerance, with love...we have the power to put something positive into the world and invite miracles to show up.  And those miracles aren't limited to the immediate area, they spread.

The whole "pay it forward" notion takes on a greater meaning when you look at it this way.  If we "pay" these kids positivity and kindness, they in turn will "pay" their friends with the same currency.  And if we do it right and long enough, they will "pay" their children with that same positivity and kindness and tolerance.

The little miracles we create with our love are our key to a positive world.  We have the opportunity to make our world an amazing place, full of positive energy and daily miracles.  We can change the world, we can invite positivity into the world and thus invite miracles.

It is so important that we take our opportunity to paint the canvas of our youth with positivity, kindness, tolerance, love...to spread the miracles around our world and replace negativity and pain with positivity and joy.  Every single act of positive we put into the universe invites miracles and changes the world.  Paint your canvas to change our world in the way of positivity.