Life Lessons

I am pretty good at recognizing and learning from the times that the universe is trying to teach me a lesson. Lately a few things have happened, for the best, that have made me realize I need to trust my gut, and stop worrying about how my reaction to things will be taken.

I have grown so much in the past few years, but whenever the really tough life decisions come up, it reminds me how insecure and unsure I still am about things. It is good though, as I believe we all need the reminder that we still have work to do. We always still have work to do. I think I need to be reminded that no matter how healthy I think I am, there is always something I should focus on to try and make better. It is really easy to get in to a happy space and stop focusing on your growth areas. I need the little reminders now and then to tell me, "Hey, Melanie, you still need to work on this. See?"

I find that so many people talk about mistakes or regret. I try and focus on the fact that things happen to help you to learn and grow. I have no regrets. I have made a ton of mistakes. But all of those mistakes have in my mind, been beneficial. Hell, sometimes the mistakes are far more beneficial to growth than doing the right thing. At least for me.

I am constantly shocked by how many people will never get to a place where they truly regret the bad things they do and try and fix them. The people for whom you can tell their only regret is, that they got caught. It makes me terribly sad that there are people in the world who are so selfish that they continue to do things without having the slightest concern about how their actions and words effect those around them. And even worse, lie to themselves to the point where they don't even think they are doing anything wrong. I am glad I am not one of those people. And I am glad that for the most part, I don't have to interact with people like that.

I think it's a good thing to have something bad happen, and to recognize what you can learn from it. It is good that I no longer take on the victim role and think the world or people in it are out to get me. I am glad I am now at a place where I take ownership for the role I have played when things don't go right, so that I can hopefully not have that same bad thing happen down the line from repeating the same mistakes. The only way to learn and grow is to truly admit and take ownership for your wrongdoing. I am doing that, and I am so grateful that I do.

Happy picture of the day: when we came out of the little dive bar in the town my cabin is in, we found a kid had passed out in the back seat of the car. He had earlier hit on Sean by looking at him all drunkified and simply saying, "Let's do this." We all got a huge laugh out of it.