Friday Writings #247: Reframing Negative Concepts

Greetings, dear poets and storytellers.

Sometime back (okay… last week), someone introduced me to a group of people as “our beloved black queen of toxic positivity”. Since I knew said someone can’t stand me and was just trying to be nasty, while pretending to be funny (in front of individuals who didn’t know me), I smiled my biggest (and creepiest) smile, and said, “Oh, thank you! I’ve always thought of myself as a Cognitive Reframing Ninja, but I’ll take queen. And black looks so good on me.” 

What can I say? I do embrace Cognitive Reframing. I consider anything that helps me take something bad and morph it into something I can work with (without screaming) a blessing. This applies to situations, people, concepts… all sorts of things. For example, the last time my therapist asked me to use one word to describe how I felt about the next 6 months, I said, “Uncertain.” And that isn’t a bad thing. With uncertainty comes opportunities, new beginnings, possibilities, creative unknowns… 

With that idea in mind, I invite you to write poetry or prose, which takes a negative concept and turns it into something positive. 

Add the direct link to your response to Mister Linky. One post per participant, please. 369 words maximum. Let your entry be new or old. Write to the prompt or to a topic of your choosing. Visit other writers. Share your thoughts on their thoughts. 

next week: We’ll ask you to write about a type of noise, literal or metaphorical.

Friday Writings #246: Light-hearted words for Spring

 

 

Hello again dear Word Weavers,

Happy (recent) Equinox to you all! For some of you, it marks the settling in of Autumn (or Fall, if you’re in the USA). Here in the Southern Hemisphere, as Spring takes hold, it’s a time of renewal: new light, new growth. Either way, it’s a restoring of the balance between light and dark, warmth and cold. Spring cleaning – which I’ve been doing lately – symbolises sweeping out all the old, tired energy to make way for the new and fresh.

Irises are always the first Spring flowers to bloom in my garden. 
© Rosemary Nissen-Wade 2022.

Spring makes me feel light and even a bit silly. So, when I was thinking up a new prompt for you, the words ‘fol-de-lol’ and ‘frippery’ popped into mind. (Actually, ‘fol-de-rol’ is how the first is usually spelt, but my head got it a tiny bit wrong.) I thought they seemed light-heartedly Spring-like, so I searched for other words appropriate for Spring, while keeping to the gentle lightness of the mood.

Your (optional) prompt this week is to use one, some, or all of the following words in a piece of writing: fol-de-lol, frippery, tender, delight, singing, sweet, new. (Yes, you may correct the first to fol-de-rol if you prefer.)

Guidelines: Poetry or prose, old or new, on prompt or not, 369 words maximum (excluding title and notes), post to your blog, add your link to that blog post below, and please read and comment on what others share. (Also you may talk to us and each other in the comment box below.)

Next week: We’ll invite you to write poetry or prose, which takes a negative concept and turns it into something positive.