I don’t want to navigate negativity.

We’re at #1 in Parent Participation. We’re going to kill it with positivity.

Do you like how I used “kill it” and “positivity” in the same line?

A little Glass is Half Full humor there. Thought you might get a kick out of it.

I’m new to the Parenting section of Amazon. Maybe I just don’t know enough, don’t have a Ph.D. in child psychology.

“Spark” was #1 in Parent Participation and the #2 book is called “Navigating Negativity.”

For the record, I in no way, shape, or form pretend to believe or even imagine that there is little or negativity in the world–or even my kids (or me!).

But why focus on it?

My goal with Spark is simple: to create something together with your kids.

That’s it.

Is there more? Sure there’s more. Lots more. There will be negative, too. Let me think back to our first book and see if I can dig up some negative:

1. “Oh no, dad, not the book project again!”
2. “You mean I have to record the WHOLE chapter myself?”
3. “Dad, I don’t know who’s ever going to buy this book. Who wants to read about two boys walking home from school?”

Here’s the difference: I write those three lines above with a smile on my face. I think it’s funny–and fun. Sure, my kids complain, but they’ll laugh about it someday. They’ll look back and remember this event.

I write lots about how and what we remember. Here are two scenarios:

1. I went to Paris for the weekend and everything went smoothly.
2. I went to Paris for the weekend and my hotel flooded when the singing wanna-be opera star in the room upstairs couldn’t hear the bathtub overflowing because she was “rehearsing” and it was a rain forest in my hotel room for an hour.

My intention with Spark is not a smooth-sailing, forgettable experience.

I want a flawed experiment. A story-telling-worthy endeavor. Something to tell Auntie Joan about at Thanksgiving.

Does that mean no navigating the negative? No. We can meander through the swamp of the “negative” all we want, but we can’t let it sink in.

Step out of the swamp, clean off your boots, and laugh about it.

When people don’t laugh, I’m not sure they know they’re alive.

When we’re dead, we can frown and complain into eternity.

But while we’re here? Let’s keep it light. Let’s spark that kindling and make a story of it.

Series Navigation

<< It takes as long as the time allottedWhat’s the one little spark going to be that sets off the creativity in you (or your child)? >>