mistake

On Sunday I wrote about paying more attention to my choices when I am with Gary. Yesterday he spontaneously came down for the afternoon and evening and it wasn't until the end of the individual balance beam finals that I realized I had forgotten to write on my blog. After a few minutes of feeling badly I decided I was still a good person and that spacing out writing on my blog could be included in that. Things are always O.K. as long as my definition of OK is very broad. I decided to go to sleep instead. It's funny how I can make up rules for myself and then when I break them I feel badly. As I've said before, intentions seem to be more useful than rules. Rules are more about right and wrong and good and bad. Intentions are about what I would like to have happen. Intentions include doing my part to make them happen and having compassion for myself when I don't.

Compassion for ourselves gives rise to the power to transform resentment into forgiveness, hatred into friendliness, and fear into respect for all beings. Jack Kornfield

I printed out this quote today from www.livingcompassion.org. I wasn't sure where I would use it and I liked it. It's amazing how the events of my day intersect to form this blog. I don't believe in coincidence anymore, rather in synchronicity( and the opportunity to learn how to spell hard words like synchronicity-which wasn't in my dictionary) There is a flow of the universe that brings me information and experiences that I write about on this blog. Thanks for reading what I write. I do notice that when I am willing to be more compassionate toward myself, it is easier to be accepting of others' foibles. Someone told me that an original meaning of error is "missing the mark," and comes from archery. If making a mistake is no more than taking aim and missing that seems pretty easy to forgive? It isn't that we didn't intend to hit the target it's just that we miscalculated the distance and the phychics of the bow and arrow. Mistakes are designed to teach us as much as being on target. When someone is walking on a balance beam and falls off, the falling off is as much a part of the process as the getting back on and continuing. Even when gold medals are at stake. Even when the gold stars we would like to give ourselves for being perfectly what we expect ourselves to be are at stake. I once got the assignment to burn my toast on purpoe to get to experience making a mistake and accepting that mistake. I think it was quite satisfying. Is there a mistake you could make on purpose? Is there a mistake you didn't make on purpose that you could forgive yourself for?