MIstakes, I've Made a Few

"To err is human, to forgive divine". Cliche maybe, but oh so true. I'd just like to know why when a mistake is made, so many of us are incredibly hard on ourselves?

I know I feel sick when I err.

This week I did two fairly large goofs. No excuses-I did wrong. No one cared that I was worried about my daughter and her complication-filled pregnancy. No one cared that the barometric pressure changed and I had to down a couple of mind-hazing painkillers.

Both mistakes, when discovered, made me cringe and formed knots in my stomach. I was able to safely and deftly correct one.

At the "day job", one of my things to do is make client specification books. I do not know how I did this, but I somehow put a totally different item in than what was supposed to be. Now you would think after checking it out 5 times before assembling this book, I would have noticed I put in a rectangular configuration where a round one should have been. I could have and should have changed it quite easily-problem was it was the client who caught the error. Oh dear. Except for sheepishly saying sorry and cringing, what else could I have done at that point?

The second snafu-a little number problem here-I switched out a number in a zip code. Thankfully it was caught, corrected and no harm or extra time was tagged on to the delivery.

If I hadn't been going over the purchase order for the umpteenth time and discovered it-a delay of 2 weeks would have been the outcome. EEK!

I think my stomach and the knots in it lasted the rest of the day.

This isn't a gender or age thing either. I've asked and witnessed this for myself. My son won't eat when he pulls a boner of any merit. My husband, Mr. no-room-for-a-margin-of-error, would probably not recover for weeks if he found out he had done some sort of major goof.

On the flip side-there are the people who either won't admit to imperfection or "clean up their own messes". They are much harder to live and/or work with. Those fun humans are always blaming and someone else. Forever insulting and alienating all in their personal path.

My own parents each had a parent that qualified for this category. Both wound up being totally estranged from the family years before their actual demise. Right now, we have a family member that, through the extent of their misdeeds,lack of humility and ability to own up to what they've done wrong have basically outworn their welcome. Period.

To err is definitely human. If there were nothing but perfect personalities, this world would be a very boring and priggish place to live in.

To admit, apologize and correct those mistakes and then be forgiven-that is truly what is divine.