Be Positive and Observant

Spirit (June): Heigh Ho.

Sitter (K): Now there’s a voice I recognise.

Spirit: Oh, you’re hard to deceive… in some things. (Laughter)

Sitters: Good evening.

Spirit: Well I guess it’s not worth my while introducing myself is it? (Mirth)

Sitter (H): No that’s right.

Spirit: Well what I want to talk to you about tonight, is ‘being positive’, about all sorts of things. But I’m going to start off with a story, that made me realise about being positive and it’s all to do with me!

Now we are back in the war years and I guess you all know what it was like. We had a bomb come down not far from my little basement flatette or whatever you call it, and it blew my windows in. Well some nice men came and boarded it up for me, but now I was  living in a black hole.

In another house that had been even more badly damaged than mine, they found some glass that was still whole, and a couple of really fine chaps came and put it in for me, so I then had glass back again. I could see once more the people walking along the pavement. But I was still pretty much down in the dumps, because the bomb had ripped up all my curtains. I can’t say they were spectacular or in that good a condition, but how could I replace them? I wanted a bit of privacy, I wanted to pull them over sometimes, and all I had, were these streamers! Where was I going to get coupons from, as no one had anything spare like that? (You could only buy things if you had 'coupons' as everything was rationed. J. H.)

So I was sitting there being really depressed. Then I began thinking, “Well this doesn’t do any good, I’ll just have a look around”. So I started going through the boxes and cases and things that I had and I felt better even doing that, but, glory be, I found an old dress! It was one of those from just before the war I guess, as it was pretty long, because during the war they got quite short. It was white with flowers all over it but I’d split it up the top round the armholes, and well, I didn’t even have any material to patch it with. So I chopped the top off, cut the skirt in two and it took me (‘cause I was working all this time), about a week to get them hemmed up and hung, and then I had some new curtains which no one else had and I felt really great! I had done something positive, and it made me feel good.

So from then on I decided that whenever anything got me down, no matter what, I would start looking for a way out ‘cause there usually is!  For example, you might have an awful headache, but if you thumped your 'funny-bone' you’d forget your headache – it’s a bit like that.

So when things are really down… start looking for the funny side, or for another way out or up. You might have a leaky roof. Now what on earth can you do about a leaky roof if you can’t get anyone to come and fix it? One of my friends, she got a tray and she put all her pot plants on it, and put it all under the leak. As she said, “Automatic watering”. It’s that sort of attitude that came through… I won’t say just London, but anywhere there was bombing, you had to make do. And it’s the same when you are ill… we’ll say you have bad arthritis in your ankle. Well that is not throughout your body, so you start thinking, “This part’s working, my hand’s all right, my neck’s all right, my other leg’s all right, so what can I do with those? Well apart from getting a walking stick and hobbling, you can’t walk far, but you’ve got good hands you can do something with them, perhaps something that would help someone else – and help you forget what’s wrong with you.

There are too many people in the world not only today, I guess they’ve always been there, that once things start to get them down, they can’t look up, they can’t think of a way out from their gloom, they can’t think of anyone else but themselves and that’s a downward path. It’s downwards in more ways than one.

Physically you probably go backwards and mentally you are doing the same… you’re not thinking of other people, and that’s what we’re on earth for, to help if we can other people, and to appreciate the things that God gave us.

Even with a sore throat or a bad cold you can still appreciate the warmth of the sun, the soft breeze that ruffles your hair, the bird that is soaring way up in the hills, the clouds that are racing each other, the sound of a child’s laughter… there are so many things. Even that big fat potato that’s on the bench, that can make you happy, because it means that you’ve got food if you’ve got a potato.

Try and encourage people to find something positive to either divert their attention from their problem, or to look out and appreciate what’s round them. It’s one and the same thing really. Because if you can’t appreciate the beauty that’s around you – what a lot you’re missing! Even just to see a little London sparrow feeding its young, grabbing up the odd crumbs while the little birds are fluttering their wings and demanding of their Mum to hurry up – that’s enough to distract anyone to watch that.

Or even to see the fish in the pond, the little ones all flocking around mum, or perhaps it’s Dad, I can’t tell the difference, but there are good things in life, there are distractions in life. The distractions must be positive and the good things must be positive too, but there are two different ways of coming to the whole – the distractions can help you physically, and the beauty that surrounds you helps your soul, and in helping yourself and in loving yourself, you can help and love other people.

So really it pays you to be positive, to make the most of everything that is around you. Everyone can get depressed and down in the dumps, but to keep it up indefinitely, to not lift up your head and say, “I’m all right” and cope, because no matter how bad things are for you, I guess in the world somewhere, there’ll be someone who is a whole lot worse off, and you may be in the position to help someone become a little bit better off, by being positive.

Well that sounds a bit long-winded but it is a very important aspect of life, of living, of creating joy, of creating a world which is a happy place to live in, of making us look at the other person, because so many people go through life with like blinkers that a horse has, they can’t see to either side of themselves – but inevitably there is someone worse than you. Though you may be very ill and feeling awful, you have probably, knowing you people, a hospital or a family to help you but there are people who haven’t, so you’ve got something to be positive about.

Well this was a sermon given to you by June. (Laughter)

Sitter: Thank you June.

Spirit: That’s all right it is my pleasure.

Sitter (H): You’re very good at it.

Spirit: Thank you. You’re being positive. (Laughter)

Sitter (K): What you are saying is all so true, but if you are feeling very sick or in very great pain it’s not so easy to carry out, but I guess we can all try.

Spirit: As you say it is not always easy to carry out, when sorrow becomes a burden, or when pain becomes a burden, but if you continue to dwell on it, which many do, that leads to what I think you people call ‘Nervous breakdowns’ and all sorts of awful things. Whereas if you make the effort, look in a mirror and make yourself smile, you may get a bit of a shock, as it may not be a very pleasant smile, it is probably quite sickly, but at least you have made that effort to try and be more cheerful.

You’ve got music, very easy for you people to listen to music and that can make a world of difference. It can be what you call uplifting, or even if you can read which I think most people in your country can do, there are some books that are worth going back to. I was never a great reader but I used to like listening to people read Mr Dickens. Did you know that he actually wrote his books with the idea that people read them aloud, they were designed that way because he realised that at the time he lived most people couldn’t read?

It was a long time before I was much good at reading, but when I was quite young my father used to read Nicholas Nickleby and I can remember a lot of that, and I had that book when I was on earth (I guess it went up with the bomb), but sometimes I used to turn the pages and I’d remember Dad, in fact I suppose he was there. I didn’t realise then, but I felt as though I was being prompted to certain parts of the book, and I guess Dad was there to help me. There are many things we can look to, flowers with happy memories, all sorts of things. You people have photos too, they can help sometimes.

Well I must go or I’ll be getting reprimanded for being, ‘over-exuberant’ I think is what I’m being told at odd times.  (Mirth).  So I must remember that, and be more correct.

Sitter (J): It’s been lovely June.

Sitter (K): Well thank you very much June for coming, and for cheering us up as you always do, and for your good advice.

Spirit: Thank you.

And bless you people and try and keep what I’ve said in mind, because it can be helpful.  You may not have to make curtains, but think, if you are down in the dumps, “Well June made curtains out of an old dress, and that bucked her up”, and it might help you.

Sitters: Thank you.

Spirit: Bless you. Goodnight.

Sitters: Goodnight.

I wonder how many parents read their children a 'bed-time story' these days. So much has been lost in this age of technology. Somewhere I have a cassette tape of me reading 'Mr Slow' to my daughter when she was small. I must look for it and convert it to MP3; she might like to listen to it again one day. J. H. Dec 2010.