Michelle L. Rusk's Blog, page 61

Regrets vs. Mistakes

Since I wrote the entry on mistakes yesterday, I've been thinking a lot about it. A mistakes is something different than a regret and I realized I might have bundled them unfairly together. I made a mistake on Sunday morning when I made pancakes and somehow managed to misread the recipe and put baking soda in the batter rather than baking powder. My first clue that something was wrong should have been how flat they were and how quickly they browned up. The second clue was the funny taste. I am not sure how I read that wrong but I did and thankfully my boyfriend was forgiving and ate them anyway. As time goes on, I know I will laugh more at this mistake but in the back of my mind I resolved to be more careful about not mixing up the two.

All Roads Led to Here

"I think the more whole you are as a person–the more integrated–the deeper you can go into scary territory" Claire [image error]Danes in The New Yorker (September 9, 2013).

While I keep harping on not looking back, I know that everyone does. I do, too. And I also know that we look back and we wish we had done things differently. We cringe at the mistakes we've made. We can't believe some of thes stupid things we did.

All those things that we want to take an eraser to and pretend are not part of our past? They are integral to who we are today. All the roads have led us to where we stand at this moment and those same roads, filled with mistakes and dumb moves, are part of who we are. Had we not made them, we wouldn't be who we are. They make us whole, they make us a complete person. And they make it easier for us to keep taking risks and move forward in our lives.

The Art of Surrendering

The more I talk to people, the more I see that most of us struggle with surrendering, worry, and letting go. Instead of focusing on these as negative aspects, we'll instead say that it's about trusting and having faith.

I'd be surprised if there is a person out there who says that he or she never worried about something. We all have been there, the endless worry and fear of the unknown. Yet what people realize is that no matter how much we worry, it all works out! Believe me, I am an expert at this!

I have been specifically working working on this aspect of my life for several years because I don't want fear or the unkown to guide my life. Putting energy there takes away from my being present and enjoying the life that is right in front of me (and the people in it).

The difficult part though, is learning how to trust and have faith. I can tell you all day long that it's important to do it but not gving out some ideas of how is useless as many people feel challenged with how to make a change. 

Tom Sharpe: Inspiring through Music

I always say how lucky I am to be a storyteller. While sometimes I am telling the stories of my life, I also get to tell the stories of others. As writers, that's generally where we all start yet we should never stop telling the stories of others because we will never have the opportunties to tell them all.

I interviewed Tom Sharpe, the drummer for the well-known Christmas band Mannheim Steamroller and also former Styx member Dennis DeYoung last week. The original plan was for me to write a short piece about a charity concert he was putting but as we kept talking, I knew there was much more to Tom than I could put in that short article where I only needed one quote.