What can be said about the year of 2016 that has just ended? So much controversy, so much strife, so much discontent, and so many set backs in the minds of many. We have been bombarded by it from so many directions. The uncertainty is palpable, the negativity overwhelming. As I sat at my computer, attempting to key this New Years letter, my mind vacillated between what is going on in my own life and the world around me. There have been some super highs and some super lows in both worlds… my “home world” and in the world at large. As I pondered the similarities and differences between the two, I keyed in sentences to then erase, rewrite, erase, rewrite. What to do, for I was getting nowhere. First of all, switch to writing with a good ole pen and paper where thoughts seem to flow much better from the tip of the pen pressed to paper.

As I switched over to the “old fashioned” method of writing, it dawned on me that part of this negativity in the world today is spread so quickly by technology. Yes, it has been spread by face to face communication as well, but so much more quickly and abundantly by the increased use of social media,  the computer,  the television etc. Just as these technological advancements and immediate forms of communication have brought huge advantages and ease to our lives, they have brought disadvantages as well… in particular you cannot get away from it. When negative messages are spread, they are done so much more easily without the presence of a face to be looked at when communicating the message. No body language to perceive, no facial expressions to be received, that might halt those words of negativity.

I know one thing and that is if I had my television, my phone, my FB page, and computer screen broadcasting and delivering all the lows that were happening in my life on a minute by minute basis, it just might be a death sentence on pushing forward and showing up everyday in a positive direction regardless of the negatives. I would spend so much time reading and re-reading about those lows, receiving the negative information over and over again that I would have little time left for figuring out how to find a solution to those negatives… I would only dwell on them, let alone maintain a positive frame of mind.

Low points and negatives can actually be a platform for change, IF instead of a wallowing in and dwelling on them and spreading them, we can change our thoughts and behaviors to focus on what we CAN DO to alter these lows and negatives. What do I have control over and what steps can I take to move past them so that I am controlling them to some extent and they are not controlling me? For the people and things that I have no control over, and there are many, I always fall back on the phrase I heard years ago that has been one of my mantras with my kids. I hope that they fall back on it in their futures, for now I know they feel that they are just words mom is spewing. Those words are, “you may not be able to change some things that happen to you in life but you can change your reaction to those things.”

Personally, this year has really pushed me to live in this statement, to dig deep, to find out what I am really made of. It has challenged me to no end and helped me to build our mission statement here at Life’s Patina. This statement became a definitive in my mind that I not only want to bring to LP, but to my own life and the lives of others in full. A mission statement that is built on personal interactions, experiences that make you feel something, elevating the ordinary, and celebrating and finding beauty in all of life… the good, the bad, the past, the present, the highs and lows…all of it!

Our wish for you in this new year that will continue to ring with uncertainty and negativity is that you continue to hold onto hope, the power of your own thoughts, the power to bring positivity into your own life and keep it there and live with intention in all of this. We hope to see you in person in this year of 2017 so we can continue to connect names with faces, share our experiences, and share our passion with you. We will continue to share little tidbits of how we go about living our mission statement at Life’s Patina through our Facebook page, our website which will go undergo some tweaks in the early part of this year, and our Instagram and Pinterest boards.

Join us in making positivity a powerful force in 2017!

xoxo

~Meg and the team at Life’s Patina