Getting Through Your Mistakes

A mistake is simply another way of doing things - Katharine Graham

If I had a penny, just a penny, for all the mistakes I've made in my life, I'm sure the earth would be covered in copper. Or whatever pennies are made out of now a days.

As cliche as it sounds, my mistakes truly have made me who I am today. My daughters were both un-planned. I found out I was pregnant with Truly on my second day of College. I found out we were pregnant with my second daughter, Addy, in the middle of planning our wedding.

My children were "mistakes" in the sense that they were "Oops" babies. After the initial shock though of finding out we were pregnant, I was excited about both of them and their arrivals.

After having children, my mistakes became more than just little mess ups. They meant more to me because I was now an example to my children. I didn't want to mess up, I couldn't mess up, I had two little eyes constantly watching me. So I started to live life safely. Never taking risks, and never putting myself in a position where there was a choice of failure, a choice of messing up, or a choice of making a mistake.

Then I realized, who am I if I don't mess up?

Without taking risks, what kind of life does a person live?

Life is about doing things worthwhile. Everything worth while involves a decision that risks a mistake. I realized that if I put myself in the position were I can't make a mistake, I will never seem quite human to my children. They need to see their mother mess up... and then rise again. Or else how would they learn as well?

My daughters will make plenty of mistakes as they get older, but how will they learn how to deal with them? If I can't show them that you can easily navigate throughout their mistakes, how can they be confident to do the same? Or worse, they'll want to hide their mistakes from me because they would be afraid of how I would feel? Now that would be a mistake of it's own.