THE MISTAKE I FORGOT TO MAKE

Every morning, when I woke as a child, I ran to do everything and to do it right. When I finished the dishes, I did the floor, clean all the surfaces and equipment in the kitchen, went to the toilet and made sure it was a heaven, a place for good meditation and shading of tears if you have some like I did and then came to scramble some breakfast. Days that there were laundry to do, I went for it immediately afterwards and then I remembered that I also needed to be tired and I went to my room to find solace in my bed. 10minutes was all it took and I hear, “what have you done that you are sleeping? You are so lazy” I forgot to tell you that I did all that work so that I don’t hear that word; LAZY but it always come to that. It didn’t take long before I was beaten for some error I made and you can be sure it wasn’t a friendly beaten at all. I always wanted to do things right and feign so much strength so everyone be happy that I forgot I was just a child. And by the end of that day, I had done so many things wrong by their judgement when I thought I tried. Well done, you did well was more like a Christmas present if I ever got one…

One thing some of us forget is that life does not expect perfection from us but excellence and dedication. A jack of all trade and master of none is also failure in all. The statement, “whatever you know how to do, do it well” is applicable everywhere. Running here, running there doesn’t make anything good of us.

Some of us sit and wonder why things are never right, sometimes it’s because we don’t do it right. And sometimes it’s because we forget that making mistakes is not all it takes to be a failure and then we quit. Sometimes we need to make those mistakes to learn from them. Mistakes they say, is the best teacher and sometimes I put it this way, others mistake is the best teacher while other times I say your mistake is the best teacher.

I tell people what Solomon actually told us first, “Never be afraid of anything, for your fear would always catch up with you”. Solomon experienced it first and shared it in the bible but I didn’t understand till I encountered it. NEVER BE AFRAID TO FAIL, NEVER BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES, if not you would soon become its slave and failure will be your companion.

Innovations, Talents, Gift, Dedication, Determination are all good and their importance will never lessen but so also are MISTAKES. They are good; they are stepping stones to better learning and greater achievements. So the way you handle what you call good, handle mistakes like that, like some great opportunity. When I saw this work of art, I was sure I dint come from one day of practice but many days of mistakes and then came this beautiful piece of excellence…

…off course I never got well done because while I was concentrating on avoiding any mistakes that would earn scolding and shouts I ended up doing them and all they could see from my actions were acts of insubordination and flagrant disobedience. The energy I was to use to do things right where focused on not making mistakes. I never understood it then for I felt I wasn’t in the least bit appreciated but I understand it now.

You might have other views about what my childhood should have been but I realized that when I decided not to please anyone anymore but leave the normal way, I made less mistakes. The only mistake I forgot to make was to make a mistake!