Have you ever thought to yourself, “There’s no way they could ever do that”? What is the one betrayal you cannot live with? Who is the one person who you feel is incapable of making mistakes and bad choices? No matter how perfect we deem our lives to be there is always that moment in our life where the expectations, ideals, and fantasies that we have created for a person or a situation collide together and come crashing down. At some moment it will happen. When you least expect it, the people we respect can betray us with their imperfections.
Whether it is a child who doesn’t follow through with his or her promise, a friend who misleads us, or an employee that violates our trust, it is a moment that redefines the way we view them and the way we view other situations. We take it personally and we hold it against them. We can let that one defining moment change the way we interact with others, cloud our judgment, or affect who we trust.
Life is full of disappointments. It is also full of people who make bad decisions. Just watch the local news or read the newspaper! But it is also full of beautiful words, phrases, moments, and memories. All of us have made decisions that we regret. We are all imperfect. Everything and everyone has beautiful and dark moments. Just remember, a blue, cloudless sky can become a hurricane. A spring breeze can become a tornado. An autumn tree with red, yellow, orange, and green colors can eventually be stripped of everything but its unappealing bark. Everyday life and situations bring on disappointment, but we shouldn’t completely write people off because of it. Easier said than done… agreed! Live and learn best describes it. As we grow older, we grow wiser and less naïve, it gets easier to predict, but not easier to accept.
Let’s face it, the people in our everyday circle can’t be perfect all of the time, and they can’t hold us to a standard of perfection either. I like to say it in this way, “We have to learn how to eat the fish and leave the bones.” In other words, we don’t throw out the entire meal because we have come across a “bone”. Instead, we take the lessons and knowledge that we need from the people we care about, and leave everything else on the plate.
Until next time… live life with no regrets. Mistakes are opportunities. By seeing it this way, you will never disappoint yourself without an opportunity to make a better tomorrow.
