[quote=SherryLea]I think instead of negativity it is just having someone to get things off your chest and speak how you think with out having to cause problems in family and friends that will last for ever.
--------------------------------------------------------
Reminds me when DH was with me and listened to some of my gripes about my ankle hurt and my migraines were getting bad, etc. So I guess he got worried/irritated/annoyed/worried and told me to go to the doctor if I was that bad. But all I wanted to do was vent, so I went to my woman's club and in my 10 or so woman chapter we would gripe, complain, brag on kids/grands, the weather and what we could or could not do. Then when we left the meeting we all agreed we felt refreshed and ready for another couple of weeks with family and no griping allowed.

That is like this forum. I feel that I can gripe about one thing or another, brag on some of the stores I've been in, and most of the readers here will either laugh with me, be sad with and for me, but they/you are here for me.

I recently found an unknown diary that my late mother had written about her life as a very poor woman newly married in the great depression. Her day to day life in an isolated, badly
run down log cabin was heart breaking.

I sometimes think that some of the others here are having a bad time, but when I read that straightforward account of her life then, I know that we are in a far better time now. And I intend to try to enjoy the rest of my life. I hope it will contain lots if not all of you whom I've grown to think of as family.

"if you're not a quilter, you don't appreciate the work that goes into the things we make". I think that is real negativity and it's damaging.
-------------------------------
One of my UFOs is for my sister to donate to her Moose Lodge in Bakersfield. I doubt that she's ever sewed on a button, even though she did lovely embroidery work before her hands got so bad, but when she picked up a kids' quilt I was working on and after examining it, remarked in surprise at how much work went into it. She talked about the color contrast, how much time I must have spent cutting out all the appliques, how much time it took to sew all that.................I just LOVE that sister!!!

I noticed after Christmas that things seemed to be a bit more negative.

Holidays are both exciting and stressful. While we are all in the 'Spirit' of the holiday before Christmas, I think the 'letdown' of post holiday when most of us are exhausted, cannot help but brings us down a notch or too. Couple that with the terrible weather so many of you have gone through since Christmas and you have the perfect atmosphere for some 'negativity'.

Fortunately, we have the choice to not read if we don't want to. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't but it does give us a medium to vent frustrations so I think overall it is a healthy outlet.

We have the opportunity to encourage and lift each other up when one of is in the dumps ... who would have thought quilters from all over the world could be friends and at least a few of us will be around 24-7.

Just MHO.

Peggy

as i said ... we have a section in which members are free to vent, rant, steam and be as negative as they need to be.

the PDAs are your place to gripe if you need it. they are the place to vent if you need it. they are the place in which to seek validation of negativity if you need it.

we're a bit flexible - but only to a point - about it in the General ChitChat section. but i stress ... only to a point.

the other sections are not a place to drag out the anger, angst and drama. we are not invisible here. thousands of people read what we write every day.

we want others to have the correct impression of who we are as a group. ;-)