Day 26
Mistakes
Friends,
Today’s prompt is mistake.
The old norse of mistake
is mistaka,
meaning
to “take in error”
and I guess
I always thought that
I was making mistakes,
when maybe I was
just taking in
too many errors—
the error of shame,
the error of self-hate,
the error of people pleasing,
the error of not believing in myself,
the error of a scary god.
Maybe we can
begin again
by taking in
something else,
something good,
something kind,
something holy,
and go from there.
Mistakes
often get a bad reputation
because they are
linked with regret.
But not every
mistake is a regret
or
regret is a mistake.
Separated from regret,
we can ask,
"what did I learn?"
In school,
that mistake reinforced
a mathematical concept
I still use to this day.
That mistaken attempt
showed that
improvisation is spontaneous actions
after years of learning that craft.
What lessons have
mistakes taught you?
When I became a
parent, I learned how to give
grace to my mistakes
I wouldn't want my
children to bear the same shame
I carried so long
It's funny what we
become capable of, when
it's for someone else
I hope my kids can
forgive others because they
first forgive themselves