“Oh dear I made a mistake !”
I hear this often from my kids or my patients or even I wonder about that myself at times. Yet is this true?
Let us think about some examples where we perceive things as a mistake historically.
Christopher Columbus thought he had reached India by going the “wrong” way but in fact found the Americas.
Grapes left out mistakenly too long turns into grape juice and then into wine. Wine is more expensive than grape juice.
Milk that goes bad turns into yogurt, which is more expensive than milk.
Accidentally leaving yogurt out turns it into cheese, which in fact is more valuable than milk and yogurt.
In medicine, Alexander Fleming mistakenly discovered commonly used penicillin that we use as an antibiotic.
If we look at a different path that we had anticipated, or reveal an outcome that is not intended, we feel that it is a mistake. It is human nature and the mind tries to course correct and so we call it a “mistake”, originally in old english it means “to take in error”.
We all make mistakes, it is normal. Moreover we only think something as an error because we do not use our gifts of observation. We do not usually see both sides of the equation and only see the drawbacks and may feel resentful and then the cascade of emotions of anger, despair, regret and depression settle in.
Yet what if we can simultaneously look at the benefits of our “ mistaken” actions to self and others. When we balance out our emotions with our perceived judgements of both advantages and disadvantages we find another path. The path of truth and reality.
Time and space is littered with possibilities. Taking one versus another does not mean a mistake, it just means a different path.
A sailboat does not travel in a straight line, it has to “tack” keep changing to get to any point of its path.
Be a sailboat, filled with the possibilities of path without judgment. Many a time when we look back we may find that we have grown from that experience that we were told was a mistake. Such is life. Then we realize that perhaps it was not a mistake after all.
Nothing is a mistake, just possibilities we are forced to see that we may have overlooked. Mistakes are like valuable lessons and not obstacles to be avoided.
…………
I love you
