Failure Day

Every now and then, at the end of my acting class in college, someone would stand up and proclaim "Today was my failure day," to which the class would respond with a rousing round of applause.

Permission to fail gave us the freedom to make bold choices (a phrase we heard all the time from our teacher. "Make a bold choice!" "Make a bolder choice!" "Make a bold gesture!" - nobody was allowed to timidly raise their hand in class). It's OK to risk if it's OK to fail.

I have proclaimed today a failure day. I failed at shopping. I failed at mailing Christmas cards (mailed all the ones WITHOUT stamps, not the ones with stamps. Discovered 5 hours later). I failed at singing.

It seemed that each thing I tried to step out and get done, didn't work out quite right. I got pretty frustrated with myself.

In declaring a Failure Day, I'm trying to give myself the grace to acknowledge the failures and move on. I was beginning to get out of this funk I've been in for the past, oh, 5 months. I can't let one day reverse the tide.

Tomorrow I am taking The May Queen to see the stage musical Mary Poppins.

After today's Failure Day, I'm hoping tomorrow will be Practically Perfect in Every Way.