Is it bought or is it sold?

A house was bought in our neighborhood about a month ago. Normally, when a house is bought, the sign on it says “sold”. The sign on this particular house is “bought”.

I pass by that house every day, so I’ve been thinking about the difference between the two words. One would argue that they are one and the same. I disagree.

“Bought” implies a new family is coming. I started asking myself all these questions: do they have kids? I wonder if they have boys that my kids could play with? Maybe they are newlyweds? Where do they work? It represents the possibility of making new friends and memories.

Sold is a period, a final reaching point. I’ve never thought about who was moving in when I saw a sold sign. I’ve always thought, I wonder where these people who lived there are going.

With bought, I’ve thought about who’s coming, with sold, I think about who’s left. It’s a huge difference. Think of positive and negative connotations, which word is more positive?

The impact of words

Mother Teresa said, “I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me.” Think about that.

I attended a weekend workshop with Wayne Dyer in Maui last year where he announced that he had been diagnosed with leukemia. He said that he has asked the leukemia to live peacefully in his body or something along those lines. I feel that is so much more powerful than waging a war against the leukemia or fighting it.

“Race for the cure” is so much more powerful than the “fight against cancer.” The choice of words is incredible.


Am I inspired?

We are launching our annual giving campaign at my kids’ school. The goal is to achieve 100% participation, so we have formed a task force to figure out how to achieve our goal.

The idea presented was to change the name to be “Inspired Giving” because when you’re inspired, you give more and you give happily.

We went through something called an appreciative inquiry process. The thought being that when you think about what you love and appreciate, then inspiration is the result. When you take that inspiration out into the community, then the energy of that will take care of achieving 100% giving.

After going through the appreciation process we decided to drop the “giving” part and just say that we are inspired! It’s so powerful. I am inspired; I love our school, I love the education being provided to my kids, I appreciate the teachers, I appreciate that music is part of the curriculum, I appreciate that art and drama are part of the curriculum and so on. I am 100% inspired!

Your thoughts … I’d love to hear them

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post. You may leave a comment below, email me to mary@marysalfi.com or find me on Facebook by becoming a fan of marysalfi.com

Thinking positive!
Mary