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Assume Positive Intent
I (Mark) can be pessimistic at times and it seems natural for me to assume negative intent. I prefer to look at all angles and outcomes, with emphasis on worst case scenarios. An example was when Mel forgot to text me when her plane landed as she was going to visit her mom in Phoenix. I judged that she didn’t care as much about me as she did for her mom. When Mel finally did call and tried to share her excitement about being with her mom, I quickly squelched her excitement with my accusatory tone and cutting words.
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The Kindness Challenge
We recently read Shaunti Feldhahn’s book, The Kindness Challenge, and loved it. I value kindness in myself and long to see this virtue once again be a standard in our society. She drives home the point that practicing kindness not only makes you a kinder person, but also opens your eyes to the kindness around you. It can create a positive spiral in any relationship, in your home, the workplace, your community and dare we say it — in our world!
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Our Ketchup Story
Janine: I used to read into everything Ken said – well almost everything. If he made a simple comment, I often took it as a personal criticism, even though he didn’t intend it to be. We still talk about the day, years ago, when he said, “Gee, we’re almost out of ketchup.”
