This might be a mistake, but…
We do all agree that mistakes in life happen, right? (Geez, I sure hope I’m not wrong about this.) Anyway, I’m going with it: mistakes are rumored to be a part of life…well, for sure, I know that for myself and everyone else I’ve ever known beyond an introduction, mistakes happened a lot.
And, up until a certain point, age, situation, or moment, mistakes are/were considered as something that happens as part of the process of ‘learning’. Then…an invisible line gets crossed (and crossed and crossed…I swear that line moves) and mistakes are something to be avoided at all costs and covered up with layers and layers of subterfuge. My image becomes what I protect. The pursuit of my honest self and truths are jettisoned…looking good and hoping like hell that seeking that polished image will lead me to happiness…that path is littered with the withered but well made-up…this might or might be a mistake…
So, the when of mistakes (the timing of my mistakes) seems to be the genuine sticking point between an honest mistake and an unforgiveable one and not the fact of mistakes. Right? Or am I mistaken? I am drawing our attention to the truth that making mistakes and learning from them is an essential human experience…that isn’t confined to the academic years, or our workplace, or our relationships…
We make mistakes everywhere in life…and it really does seem that we have forgotten that natural learning process (hijacked by the hard sciences)…and now have come to believe that mistakes are for careless, the sloppy, the ‘lessers’… and the only ‘learning’ we try harder at…is the ways we try harder and harder not to be found out.
Anyway, I believe that it’s a bit of its own mistake for us not to make peace within ourselves and one another for making mistakes…if we want to learn…we all can…
To make different choices…in the direction of learning to love better…
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From when I was way too young to remember, until only a few years ago … a ‘mistake’ was something I’d learnt had to be avoided at all costs (or there was ‘a price to be paid’ … emotionally and/or physically). Truly, I don’t remember ‘a mistake’ ever being part of the process of learning, back then. So practiced had I become at berating myself for my mistakes – even if they weren’t my ‘fault’ at all … I had completely lost touch of the ‘learning’ component.
Thankfully, I was fortunate to have a second chance at learning this lesson. That there are no such things as ‘misktakes’ … these are simply opportunities to learn. And if I choose to repeatedly ignore (I mean many, many, many times) those opportunities to learn … there is another opportunity in there too … as in, what is it about that particular ‘thing’ that I am continuing to choose to side-step the learning opportunity? What is there that I’m avoiding? What is so appealing about this ‘thing’ that makes me want to continue doing it?
Humans behave in curious ways … often … 🙂
🙏😉