Getting Smart

Mama makes mistakes.

(Like letting this picture be taken, for one!)

And I see her berating herself and regretting them and getting all weird over not having known what to do to NOT make them and I just say, Hey, mama, we all make mistakes, even I, LOULOU, can goof up every now and then (can’t remember when but it did happen once), and then, right on cue, mama gets this wonderful email from a good friend and the email has a picture of a 90-year-old woman,  Regina Brett, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, who has condensed what she’s learned about life into 45 aphorisms.  Not those simpy kind that make people cringe but real, informative observations about living that long.

The one that struck mama like a bolt of lightening is this:  What other people think of you is none of your business. Now isn’t that just the best piece of information you’ve ever heard?

And how about this one: If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
Boy, I’d sure do that!! A little problem of an empty kibble bowl doesn’t look like anything compared to a poor stray kitty with no food.  Or a child anthro…

So today, mama reads this wonderful article by Pamela Druckerman, the woman who wrote Bringing up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, and lo and behold, there was yet another woman’s wisdom about how to make your life more fun, calmer, and how to let go of silly notions that one might have had as a (let’s just say it: DUMB) youth.

So now mistakes are not such a big deal in mama’s head, at least starting from today…haha.

Whew. I’m glad she’s finally resolved THAT one! I needed a rest.

And papa always says that if you know how to forgive your own faults and mistake, you’re much better at forgiving others’.

Well, I’m certainly going to do that for myself. And I started by cleaning up all the yogurt mama left out on a dish.  Now she won’t have to wash it!