Beautiful mistakes

Sometimes wonderful things happen in life as an accident. Chefs are all too aware of the magic that can happen by having one ingredient fall into a recipe. The attitude is always of curiosity to see if it works or not and quite often, it works in wonderfully unexpected ways.

While showing my poetry compilation to a friend, he asked me what a certain word meant because he remembered correctly that the spelling to that particular word was different. When I check, there it is... a typo.

The initial reaction was anger since I’d proofread the book and when I triple check, the word exists. You see, I wrote burry instead of bury. At first I was mad, until I did like a chef does... and checked the definition to see if this new ingredient ‘worked’.

The result was a definition that changed the meaning of the entire poem for me in the best possible way. My “mistake” made the poem something truly special and the way it happened, even more so.

It just goes to show, greatness sometimes comes about from mistakes. 

Get off your but

There is no word that is used more as a crutch than “but”. It is comfortable, short, fits in any sentence and serves to justify all the things people say they want to do, yet somehow find a way of not doing them. To me, it’s an ottoman word: small, comfortable and really not something you need in your life.

Try to imagine your life without buts. That project you’ve wanted to do for years, you did it. That weight you wanted to lose, you did. That resolution you’ve been dragging for half a decade, you achieved it.

But is an eternally passive, sticky, comfortable word that makes it all seem Ok. It liberates you from responsibility, passes on accountability to someone else and honestly, is the shortest, quickest way to offer an excuse. 

Still, right now when you’re reading this, you can take a conscious decision to toss but in the recycle bin and get serious about what you want. You want to be happy? You want to be successful? You want to be fit? What do you want? Ask yourself and be brave enough to answer from the bottom of your heart, then get cracking.

You deserve a life without buts, without if onlys, where you are in control and in power. Still, the but is always there for you to sit on because free will exists. It is your decision to do with your life what you wish and make a difference. 

Age is not the issue, weight is not the issue, gender is not the issue. Most things in life are a matter of will. 

So are you going to follow your gut and obey your will, or are you going to sit on that lazy but?

Constellation

Stars often speak in hushed tones,

Bright giggles exchange winks

All in between celestial sonnets.

'Tis a melody against the black,

A moment’s pause before the moon’s overture.

The night’s solitude overturns,

One after the other they arrive to the concerto,

Bright friends for a dark evening,

Light fare that blinks through heavenly chatter.

Twinkle, twinkle from afar.

How I wonder how you are,

Lucid thoughts and dreamy song,

Coda ends with smile, anon.

Happy problems

Life is full of all types of problems and some of them are truly wonderful. You could be exhausted from surfing too long, you might have run out of candy or cake because you shared it with someone or in my case, you might even run out of books to sell the first time you share it with the world.

I’ve noticed that people have all sorts of problems and that’s fine, it’s our right to perceive the situations in our lives as opportunities or problems and I totally get when people tell me that I can’t be positive all the time. They’re right. So I’m focusing on all of my problems and would like to share them with you.

• I’ve run out of ink from being so inspired to write.

• I’ve missed a phone call because I turned off my cell phone to enjoy dinner or lunch with my wife or a friend. 

• I’ve had intense abdominal pain from laughing so hard.

• I’ve had buzzing in my ears from going to a live concert and getting my mind blown away by Pearl Jam.

• I’ve had an accelerated pulse from watching a fantastic boxing match or body boarding contest.

• I keep running out of papers to write in my notebook from writing so much.

• I’ve run out of space on my phone from taking so many wonderful pictures.

So you see; I really do have a bunch of problems because life is far from a cakewalk and I’m sure you have your own set of problems you’d like to share with the world. So by all means, share your #HappyProblems with me on Twitter @jdestradawriter.

Here’s to a life full of #HappyProblems