Mistakes Happen

This morning I picked up my camera to photograph a pair of mallard ducks in the pond behind our house. Unfortunately I had forgotten that the last time I used my camera I set the camera settings to allow longer exposures for intentional camera movement images. I made about a dozen photos but I was so busy watching and photographing the ducks that I didn’t look closely at the photos I had made. When I finally looked at them, every single photo was full of motion blur.

I found myself saying, “Oh well…

Mistakes Happen…

unexpected things happen, let’s see what I can make from this mistake.”

And I discovered that I quite liked some of the blurry photos of the mallards in the water. Though I would have liked to have a do-over, the ducks were now napping on the log at the edge of the pond. They had completed their morning ablutions.

This is the way of life. We make mistakes. Or unexpected things happen. And we are left with finding a way to make sense of life and go forward. We can lament what happened and wish for a do-over (but in my experience there are no do-overs). Or we can find something good or something to learn in whatever happened and move on.

I almost always learn something from my mistakes. And I am learning that the painful moments are often the best opportunities for growth and learning.

Release the harsh and pointed inner
voice. it’s just a throwback to the past,
and holds no truth about this moment.

Let go of self-judgment, the old,
learned ways of beating yourself up
for each imagined inadequacy.

Allow the dialogue within the mind
to grow friendlier, and quiet. Shift
out of inner criticism and life
suddenly looks very different.

I can say this only because I make
the choice a hundred times a day to release the voice that refuses to
acknowledge the real me.

What’s needed here isn’t more prodding toward perfection, but
intimacy – seeing clearly, and
embracing what I see.

Love, not judgment, sows the
seeds of tranquility and change.

   — Danna Faulds

How do you respond when mistakes happen? And what have you learned about life today, my friends?

May you walk in beauty.