Words, Words, Words from Adam Savage

"Failure is always an option." Adam Savage

For fans of Mythbusters, this quotation will be familiar. The first time I saw Adam wearing a t-shirt with this saying on the show, I felt a pang of regret. Regret that this saying hadn't been there for me when I was a teenager and thought the only way to succeed was through perfection. Failure was, well, failure: a bad thing every time.

Perfectionism is the most crippling attitude I've ever embraced. It's brutal, like trying to batter your way through a brick wall with your forehead.

And it does not work. Not at all.

Thank the Good Lord above, I know better now. Failure is always an option, and very often, it ends up being good thing. We learn from it things like compassion and empathy, determination, resolution, forgiveness, and acceptance. It makes us grow.

Thomas Edison's attitude was this: "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." Adopting this attitude has helped me in my crafting (dare I call it art?) and in life in general.

How has failure helped you?

Veterans Day

"Freedom is never free." --Unknown

To all those who have served and are serving the cause of freedom, thank you. You sacrifice freedoms so others may have theirs. You give up control of where you live, what you do, how long you stay in one place. You are a slave to bureaucracy, red tape, and politics and still persevere. You leave your family for weeks or months or even years at a time, you miss anniversaries and birthdays and your children's first steps, not because you want to but because you must. You do a job many free people would never do because you know it needs to be done. You see things many people never want to see because you have the courage to look evil in the eye and act against it. You risk your health and wholeness and even your life because you know freedom is never free. 

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Weekly Giggle #23

Go here and see the most embarrassing cakes a girl could ever have. EVER. The symbolism of the drippy cherry cheesecake...*shudder*

Cake Wrecks: Parent Appreciation Day

Lucy and Levonna, you're going to need years of counseling for this trauma. Big hugs, girls. Big hugs.

Gratitude Journal #65

Today, I am grateful for this quotation from Thomas Jefferson: "It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give happiness." I found it on the Happy News website this morning.

Today, I am grateful for a lovely church service yesterday. The Scripture for the day included one of my favorite (and one of the scariest) passages in the Bible, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew: "Judge not.... For with the judgment you pronounce you shall be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get." Kinda makes you want to be nice in your judgment and generous in your measure, now, doesn't it?

Today, I am grateful for health. So many people are sick right now!

Today, I am grateful for the Daisies of this world who spread love and joy wherever they go. I've seen people with sour expressions catch a sight of our Daisy on her walks, and I've watched a smile take over their faces. It's impossible to be unhappy in the presence of a Daisy.

Of course, even Daisies get tired sometimes, and still they make us smile with their unself-conscious, graceless lounging.

What are YOU grateful for today?

Communication Breakdown

George: Jack, I want you to rinse Daisy's water bowl and fill it with fresh water.

Jack: Okay. [Gets bowl, takes it to sink, walks back to the food dish.]

George: Did you rinse the bowl?

Jack: Yes.

George: Do you know what rinse means?

Jack: No.

George: Is there still grass in the bowl?

Jack: Yeah. [Jack puts down the bowl and walks away.]

George [to me]: That was entirely my fault.

Me: Yes. Yes it was.

Words, Words, Words about Bizarre Foods

While George and I were watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman on the Travel Channel, it occurred to me that George has eaten some bizarre foods himself, particularly when he was in survival training with the military and his team had to care for, kill, and eat a bunny rabbit. So I asked George about it.

Me: Did you have to eat an eyeball of the bunny in survival training?

George: No, but I had to taste the contents of its stomach, which is not really as disgusting as it sounds.

I knew there was a good reason I didn't go into the military. Urgh.

Things on Thursday: Tennis Ball

As I sit at my computer this morning, my firstborn lies sick on the sofa, and my fur baby is growling. Her growls, which surely she thinks are vicious and threatening, sound positively, adorably cute and cuddly, and make you want to annoy her so she keeps growling. Right now, however, she's growling at the tennis ball she's attempting to kill. This tennis ball:

Isn't that the saddest tennis ball you've ever seen? When Hoover played with a tennis ball, he did just as you might expect a retriever to do: he slobbered it up, brought it to a human throwing machine, and then retrieved it. He had the same tennis balls for thirteen years. We bought one canister, and he was good for life.

He never denuded a tennis ball.

Daisy does things differently.

I foresee many canisters of tennis balls in our future.

Two days ago, she disemboweled her favorite raccoon toy.

Note to self: do not leave stuffies in the crate with Daisy. Very expensive vet visit for bowel obstruction might result.

The tennis ball fuzz passes right through. Ask me how I know.

I dare you.