“A mistake is simply another way of doing things.”  – Katherine Graham

“mis•take: 1. an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.” – dictionary.com

I love how this life is full of amazing chances to live, learn, grow, and change. I also know that I am extremely fortunate to be able to look for the good in a situation that is seemingly very bad.  Last night I made a mistake, “an error in action” as the definition provides.  The error in action that I made caused a friend to feel very uncomfortable; in response I too felt very uncomfortable, lost a little sleep and felt an urge to correct my actions.

What I kept thinking, when I was replaying this situation, was how I made a mistake and it needed to be fixed.  This contradicted a much deeper belief that there are no mistakes!  I do believe this to my core. Whenever I look back upon my life, I know today in this moment, several things that I have deemed as being “wrong” or negative in the moment have brought me to the place I am today and I would not change any of it.

Language is incredible and words are very important to me in my life. As I sift through this situation, the definition really sheds a great deal of light on my reality.  This definition does not state that a mistake is a “wrong,” it says it is an error.  The error becomes a “wrong” when I label it as such.  Alexander Pope was quoted to say, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” In this moment I took an action that was an error; that makes me human.  My job now is to work through the overwhelming feeling that says I should label this as a “wrong,” I can do this through the second part of the quote which, reminds us that forgiveness is where the Love is.  In this situation I need to forgive myself so that I can re-enter the world and be present for all of the good that is coming to me and from me.

Affirmation:  There are no mistakes, every error is a chance to learn and grow!

Call to action: As you make mistakes, find the good, learn from them, and share the results with us.

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