“A mistake is the most beautiful thing in the world.  It is the only way you can get to some place you’ve never been before.   I try to make as many as I can.  Making a mistake is the only way that you can grow.”  – E. W. Wainwright

There I was spending a morning working on a jazz playlist to educate my princesses in a form of music that I had loved so much in my life.  Realizing that I had gotten so lost up that I was ignoring my blogs as well as chores I need to get done today, I started searching for a quote for Thought of the Day.  I think the above quote is brilliant.

I have remarked so many times under so many circumstances in my life that the best things places that I’ve been, the best food places found, the best songs and poems I’ve ever written really might be seen as mistakes.  Unintentional paths taken in my youth that led to real growth – some quite beautiful, some very ugly.  All of this adding up to a lot of growth that has made me who I am today.  Perhaps not a person of great significance, but, that’s fine.  I have had quite a ride in life, seen a lot of the world, met and befriended and even loved some of the best people that money could never have bought.

Through it all, this is my one take away that I tell my princesses over and over again.  There are no mistakes.  There are only lessons.  Some you have to repeat until you get it right.  By right, I mean right enough to fit for the person you are and the person you intend to become.  The only fail is when you get knocked down and do not even make the effort to get back up and dust yourself off to attempt life again.  The biggest reason for that is the worse enemy mankind has ever had.  Fear.

When you meet that overwhelming fear there is only one way to deal with it effectively.  You tell yourself that you are not a coward.  You face fear down with the courage to make the necessary efforts to accomplish your dreams and goals.  What is courage anyhow?  It is being afraid and doing it – whatever the it might be – no matter the fear.  One step at a time.  That’s how the longest journey starts.  Arguably learning to face down fear and grow through your ‘mistakes’ is the longest journey a human being will ever take.  Just take it, please?