Imagine A Complaint Free World

January 3, 2009 ironbridejennifer1

Our world is filled with negativity and complaints.  Do you ever wonder what this does to our spirits? One amazing man named Will Bowen dared to test the world. It all first started when he was ministering at his congregation, and handed out purple bracelets to the members to help them realize how often they complain. The idea of this bracelet is that every time you complain or are negative you need to switch your bracelet to a different wrist, to try it for 21 days to make it a habit, and see how long you go with keeping your purple bracelet on one wrist. It took Will Bowen six months!

“Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right. And to refrain from complaining doesn’t necessarily mean putting up with bad quality or behavior. There is no ego in telling the waiter your soup is cold and needs to be heated up—if you stick to the facts, which are always neutral. ‘How dare you serve me cold soup…?’ That’s complaining.”

—Eckhart Tolle, “A New Earth”

Iron Brides had a presenter come in and talk with us a week or so ago about a complaint free world. Listening to Betsy story really touched my heart. Even though I have only had my bracelet for one week I feel attached to this thing! When I take a shower or do the dishes I take it off, and the other day I had forgotten to put it on. We’ll yes, I complained and when to switch wrist, and became so upset when I didn’t have it on! So far this week I have a good  touching story to do with the bracelet. A few days ago I got up a little later than usual to take my puppy out to the park. It was absolutely freezing so I put on my cute little mittens, and dresses up nice and warm. I head out my door to the right and meet up with some neighbors. They complimented on my puppy, and we talked a little bit about her. When we said our goodbyes I told them we were off to the park. They suggested to head left because there was another park down there where there was more room for her to run. So I headed to the left somewhere I hadn’t been yet. Half way through our walk I see a man outside his house picking up some garbage, and here I am walking with my puppy. “Oh! great,” I thought this man is probably going to stop me thinking it was my puppy who got into his trash.” Sure enough this man stopped me, and of course my thoughts were wrong he stopped me to chit chat about my puppy, to tell me how pretty she was, and we talked about his three dogs. We talked for about 15 minutes or so then said our goodbyes, and I walked to the park across from his house. About 10 minutes later he’s there with his three pups, and our dogs are playing together. We get to talking in the blistering cold weather about everything, and of course I had to ask how his holiday was. This man just looks at me and says “you know I have hit rock bottom, I have ,no license, no job, and my wife left me because of money. He tells me he’s not sure he will ever beable to get back onto his feet again.” I looked at him and say ” yes, you may have hit rock bottom, but you can pick yourself up again, it’s going to be hard, but you can do it. It’s all about positive thinking, and complaining less about the things you don’t have.” I told him about my bracelet and how it has impacted my life in just a few days. I think for a fraction of a second I lifted up his spirit, and maybe once his spirit is re-built he will do the same for someone else, and so forth. So thank you Lord, for letting get a chance to make someone’s day a little bit better.

As a society we all need to start to work together, and be there for one another. Yes, he was a stranger, yes, I could have gotten hurt, but we all need to stop thinking about the negative, and actually care when we ask a stranger how they care. Our world focuses too much on the negative, and complaints. All I can say is spread the word.

 

 

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