My friend Pam returned home from the beach late at night and immediately went outside to water her garden. Starting the sprinkler she returned inside to unpack and take care of other details. Soon she headed off to bed exhausted after the long drive home.

At 6 AM she awoke with an “oh no” realization remembering she left the water running all night. She came downstairs to discover that not only was her garden flooded but so was her basement.

Basement flooding had been a problem for Pam and her husband over the years and no one repair person seemed able to remedy the problem. While she was “shop vacuuming” up the water she realized the source of the the water infiltration was different than what others had suggested and her own eureka moment leading to clarity about how the leak could be fixed. Her handyman is headed over this week to make the repairs.

While bummed out at 6 AM, by 11 AM she concluded that this was a mistake worth making!

Mistakes happen all the time and our imperfection as human beings means that we’ll have plenty of opportunities to learn from them. Don’t assume that your blunders and slipups are screw-ups. They may be openings to give us a fresh perspective on how to solve that problem once and for all.

© Richard Citrin, All rights reserved, 2016