Creating positivity...

I’m a creator. I create many things and have ideas for millions of others. I've created music, pillows, looks, clothes, books, blogs, and even a little boy. I’m quite versed at creation and what planning is occasionally involved in creation. The funny thing about creating something is, sometimes it can’t be planned for. I love the entire process, planned or unplanned, from idea to fruition.

Creating positivity is a different story. This is a process that has to be planned! Being and remaining independently positive in a world of esotericism is a difficult process. Being positive is more than just learning on the page, it takes an implementation of theory into your daily life. More importantly, it takes a mind to want to change your thinking. Eventually, habits are formed and reactions to situations no longer require you to actively think of what to think. Fruition of this or any behavior change is the point of no longer needing to think it; you just are what you want to be.

I was asked to help my publisher this week at an event to help recruit interns. My publisher, an amazing young man in his own right, stated that this job was bigger than just him and he, flat out, needed help! The venue he chose was “Welcome Back” week at The University of Michigan-Flint campus. The event is held every year to promote on campus organizations and to raise students awareness of what is happening in and around the university. Groups decorated tables with pamphlets, display boards, flyers, and even a friendly lizard took pictures with a few of the Wildlife Society’s members. I, especially, loved the guy in the gorilla suit holding the sign for The Econ Society. I still have no clue what a gorilla has to do with economy but how much fun is a monkey suit? Students got free hot dogs and hamburgers courtesy of the University. Free ice cream was in an Old School Hood Rich Ice Cream Cart with bells attached! We, meaning partakers, (I couldn’t help but to jump into the fray!) could visit tables and collect the “Free Swag” that comes with all informational events. The goal is to get you to take free stuff and when going through your things later, to hopefully, remember the information that was given. Even perhaps, to move you to visit their websites or join them in whatever activity they were doing on campus.

I was tapped to help out at the Brandon Publishing table. I put information, candies, and bookmarks into bags for students to take with them. I spoke with students about the internship and the multiple areas they could intern for with Brandon Publishing. I leaned heavily on a fellow author who’s done many of these events for herself and for Brandon Publishing for clues on what students were looking for with internship information. I gave away books, t-shirts, and as much of the information a brand new recruit can give. I tried anyway!  Wholly, for the hour and a half I was allowed away from my job, I had a ball.

The feeling I walked away with was one of inspiration and positivity. In this city, events like this one are rarer than I can mention. Even though, this event was for University purposes, it was an amazing experience to be a part of. I suddenly understood to a deeper degree the purpose my publisher had in mind when creating this company. As a graduate of the University, events like this one, created in him the drive for positivity and to incite positive change in a community where most things aren’t positive at all. I was thrown into the drastic irony of the fact that while this amazing event was taking place, a few blocks over, there was a school that helped troubled students to receive their high school diploma despite their setbacks that was closed and boarded up. The desolation of this city is shockingly apparent to all who may come here but, if you know like I know, there’s usually something positive brewing under the surface.

While endeavoring not to wax rhapsodic, I will say that I am immensely proud to be a part of a company that deeply values the community in which it is based. So much so, that no matter the juxtaposition of remaining and creating positivity in a city that boasts the number three highest crime ranking in the nation, we remain and we create.

It’s up to you what you make, create, and put your time, talent or treasure into. No one can make you choose what you choose. Your life is your own making and my prayers are that you make it a good one. But, to use my favorite teaching tool ever, the Bible: Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” and Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”. I believe these two verses can be interpreted to mean “What you gain, learn, know, believe, and understand aren’t for you. God gives you these gifts for the express reason of giving them away. He blesses you to be a blessing.” In my opinion, as a Christian woman, nothing is more important than having a relationship with God but I understand the need to get the door open to things of the heart and of the positive before you can usher in the things of God

In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is understood that humans are built with five basic needs that control their thoughts and behavior. Physiological needs such as oxygen, food, water, and regulated body temperature are the beginning. If any of these are deprived a human, it negates the need for any higher satisfaction. Safety needs consist of just the simple need to know they are safe in times of emergency. The need of love, affection, and belongingness includes both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging to overcome the feelings of loneliness and alienation. The needs for esteem can become foremost when all other needs are present. Included are the needs for self-esteem and for the esteem one receives from others. When this need is not fulfilled, people can feel weak, helpless, inferior and worthless. Last is the need for self-actualization. Maslow describes this as a person’s need to be and do that which the person was “born to do.” My pastor describes this as “Walking in Your Purpose”.

Both of these theories are true and while it may be a little abstract, they work in conjunction. Someone has to be the giver and someone has to be the receiver. Givers need to be willing to give and receivers/the needy have to be prepared mentally to receive. The simplicity of this theory is only eclipsed by the difficulty of coordinating the efforts of giver and receiver. If any factor is missing, labors of giver and receiver are for naught.

To right this discrepancy, I believe that some people are put here to stand in the gap of giver and receiver. I also believe that some peoples’ “born to do” is to help others fulfill their needs and to bring them to a place of finally realizing their own “born to do”. By eliminating basic needs, we can strive to create a community and a population that can grow straight and true. I believe this publishing company, this amazing group of writers, editors, and administrators, is a shining example of striving to be impactful and to help fulfill the needs of people who otherwise would have no one to sow some much needed positivity into their journey. “Pride” isn’t a big enough word to encompass what I feel but, it’s a good start.

Yeah, I got all of that from a “Welcome Back” mixer. I got a few highlighters, too…