Not long ago a friend sent me a gift. It arrived in the mail as a small strip of paper. Written on it in beautiful calligraphy — with a large initial letter flashing in gold — were the words:
“Mistakes are only messages about how to do it better next time.”
I called my friend immediately, delighted.
“That’s a wonderful quote,” I said. “Who wrote it?”
There was a pause. Then she answered calmly, “You did. In The Wonder and Happiness of Being Old.”
I burst out laughing.
Often when I am writing, I feel as though I am being written through — as if the words are not entirely mine but are passing through me from somewhere else. Perhaps that is why I sometimes don’t recognize my own wisdom when it returns to me.
Because it doesn’t quite feel like mine.
But now here it is, back in my hands on that small strip of paper. And I find myself grateful for the reminder.
Mistakes are not disasters. They are instructions. Little notes slipped under the door of our lives, telling us how to try again, how to see more clearly, how to do better next time.
It’s comforting to remember that.
And apparently, it’s something I once knew well enough to write down.