Finding Humor in Mistakes

It is so important to be able to laugh at ourselves and our mistakes. Many of us take ourselves way too seriously, and get deeply embarrassed when we make mistakes or do something silly in public. Life is too short to be so hard on ourselves. WE are all human. We all do silly things. We all make mistakes from time to time. How we recover/react from those events is really all that matters.

My mom told me a story the other day that had me laughing uncontrollably. She was on a trip recently to visit her sister. The two of them attended a community meeting in my aunt's town. After the meeting, they walked outside to find it pouring down rain. They shared an umbrella on the way to my aunt's car.

As they approached the car, my aunt said, "I'm going for it!" and dashed out from underneath my mom's umbrella and ran towards the driver's side of her car. My mom held the umbrella in front of her slightly to block the blowing rain and rain to the passenger side of the car. She jumped in, shook the umbrella... and looked over to the driver, expecting to see my aunt. Instead, she saw a woman she didn't know!!

The both started laughing hysterically. My mom apologized a few times. The woman said, "I don't know who you are... but I'll take you wherever you want to go!" They continued to laugh as my mother got out of the car and looked around for my aunt. My aunt, was already laughing as well, as she stood by her car waving her arms frantically at my mother.

This little 'mistake' that my mom made has given all three of us some deep, wonderful belly laughs. I'm sure everyone who has heard the story is identifying with my mom (we've all done things like that before), and is laughing at the amusing anecdote.

We can all take a lesson from my mom. We all do things that we don't mean to do. Some of them are really funny. Life gets better when we can enjoy the entertainment factor of our little silly errors.

I'm thankful that she lived this little tale (I really needed a laugh the day she told me the story) and I'm even more grateful that she shared it with me... so I could not only be amused, but be reminded that it's really OK to make mistakes and laugh them off! Thanks mom!!