As I was eating lunch yesterday, I realized it was a Wednesday and I hadn’t written Wednesday Words. I’m sure this was more noticeable to me than anyone else, but it wasn’t my only mistake this week. Earlier in the week, I had a directee show up two hours earlier than my calendar indicated — not because she was early but because I entered the wrong time into my calendar. Last night as we were preparing to host Midweek Meals, my husband mentioned that I didn’t send out a reminder this week. Turns out I sent out a reminder with a menu — I just didn’t include him. These are small mistakes in the scheme of things, but there was a season when these mistakes would have resulted in self-flagellation.
What’s your reaction to mistakes? Are you as kind to yourself as you are to others when a mistake is made?
Some (perhaps all) of these mistakes are the result of an aging mind and a complicated world. A few days ago, my husband and I were discussing how many little decisions each day brings. It began as a conversation about data privacy and where to accomplish things like word processing and spreadsheet work. It turned into a realization that we weren’t making these same decisions two decades go. When I quit full time work to be home with my (then two) daughters, one big adjustment was not having constant access to email during the day. Now, part of me longs to go back to less access.
If you could eliminate one way that technology has made your life easier but more complicated, what would it be?
On some level, I’ve been aware of life’s trajectory towards complication and I am trying in small ways to correct my own course. For a few weeks now, I’ve been shutting my phone off completely on Sundays. It’s a bit of a pressure release to not have texts come through, to not have constant access to search any little idea that comes to my mind, to not waste time on that tiny screen like I do many days. We’ve also been experimenting with watching sports via network TV. We no longer have access to streamed live television and we’ve made the conscious decision to leave it that way for a while. It feels a bit calming to only have two football games available to me at one time. Why did I ever think I needed more? Caveat: the football team I follow with the most fervor is Alabama. Their games tend to be available on ABC. My experience would be exponentially more frustrating were that not the case.
Is there an area of your life you long to simplify? How might you take a small step in that direction? Do you see evidence that a more complex life leads you to more mistakes?
I’m fifty-one and nearing the end of another trip around the sun. Simplifying my life in small ways will not eliminate all my mistakes, so I am trying to see them as gifts in some small way. Now that my husband works from home and we work together, more of my mistakes have an impact on him. I’m choosing to let that be a humbling experience rather than a shaming one. I am human. I do make mistakes. It’s not particularly comfortable to put that in writing, but it is true.
Presumably you are human, too. How do you frame your mistakes? What are ways you can see them as gifts?
Book Corner:
What I’ve Been Reading Lately
via audiobook:
How Long to the Promised Land? by Esau McCauley
I enjoyed this book and its settings in Alabama, Tennessee and beyond. McCauley grew up in the same state I did and was born about ten years after me. His experience and my experience were worlds apart — mainly because our skin color differs. I like the way McCauley walked the reader through familial history with honesty and humility. His is a story worth reading.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
My original loan of this book expired before I could finish listening to it. Thankfully, I was able to get it back in a few weeks to finish it. Being Mortal has been so thought provoking for me. It has helped me imagine what I want my end of like to look like - and what I hope to avoid. This book is practical and a touch philosophical. It’s solid science intermingled with relatable stories. I highly recommend it.
via library loan:
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
From the very start, I could imagine each Blue sister. This book is essentially about grief, brokenness and addition, which made it a good read, but a difficult one. There’s both hope and inevitability in the way addiction is portrayed in this book. The familial lines of addiction are pervasive in an authentic but depressing portrayal. If you want a book that will make you feel, this one will do it. And it will do it with moving and beautiful writing.
via Ebook:
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
I’m reading this for book club and it happens to dovetail beautifully with Being Mortal. It’s set in a world where everyone over the age of twenty-two receives an indestructible box with a string measuring the length of their life. Who chooses to look? Who doesn’t? Who keeps the knowledge private? Who makes it public? I’m curious to see where this one ends.
In the coming days, may we see our mistakes with clear eyes. May we be kind to ourselves, forgive ourselves and look for the good even there.
Peace & Grace,
Shannon
I missed reading you at lunch yesterday — but you’re forgiven :)