Letters to My Children: Have a Short Term Memory
Book page Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 11:10 on 16 November 2007Okay, look, you're going to make mistakes. They're going to happen, they're a part of life. Mistakes are part of the learning process: you try something, it might work, it might not. When it works, you learn something. When it doesn't work, you learn something else. As the quote says, "If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough."
However, how you react to your mistakes, and what you learn from them, is more important than the mistake itself. Yes, yes, I know, this is the same theme you've heard before. I'm going to say it again.
Mistakes are going to happen, okay? When they do, and you've corrected the mistake as best you can, learned the lesson you're going to learn from the mistake, the best thing you can do is have a short term memory of that mistake.
Which is not to say, "forget the lesson." Instead, remember the lesson and forget the mistake.
So you missed that catch. Remember the lesson to watch the ball into your hands. Remember the lesson to position yourself in the line of trajectory so that you're facing the ball to minimize the difficulty of the catch. Remember the lesson to clench and secure the ball. Okay, okay, I'm kidding on that one, you know that part.
Once you've remembered your lessons, forget that missed catch, forget that mistake. Remembering that incomplete catch, replaying the miss over and over again in your head will not change the outcome. You won't suddenly catch the missed ball. What it might do, however, is imprint the incorrect actions for the next time. It may adversely affect the next catch.
Beating yourself up over with a mistake on infinite replay does nothing but waste energy and distract you from what is happening next. What good is that?
So, you made a mistake. Whatever. Short term memory: forget that mistake. You have another ball to catch.
Pumpkin waffles
Blog kitt decided around 10:31 on 15 November 2007 to publish this:Megan and I were talking about websites last Saturday, and she showed me one of the sites she frequents, Smitten Kitchen. It's a food blog, which means, of course, it'll either have tasty recipes (and thus be worth visiting again) or sucky recipes (and thus we suspect Megan is crazy).
The first recipe I found on the site (you know, hard to miss, it was on the front page), was for pumpkin waffles. Now, pumpkins are ones of the glorious, glorious reasons fall is my favorite season, making this recipe completely inspiring. As in, don't wait until the weekened inspiring.
Kris has a meeting Thursday mornings, so he's up early. I don't have yoga in the morning since the schedule was changed at the beginning of the month, so hey, how about Thursday morning?
Megan and Mirabelle came over to help us eat the waffles. The recipe made 17 farm yard animal + barn waffles, of which Kris ate four, Megan ate two, Mirabelle at two and I managed all of one. I did eat the barn, though. Mirabelle had a chicken and a headless pig.
Aside from the wonderful reward of spending time with Kris and Megan and Mirabelle, making the waffles also caused the house to smell wonderful, as the pumpkin cooking spices filtered throughout the kitchen and living room. Pretty wonderful to come home to that smell.
I crack me up
Blog Instead of being asleep at 13:28 on 14 November 2007, kitt created this:Fun with the new camera.
Hello, Dog!
Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 21:35 on 13 November 2007Any idea how hard it is to make a Blue Heeler sit still long enough to shove a camera up his nose? How about a Border Collie?
How about after you've already annoyed them with a flash that accidently went off?
Yeah, that hard.
Dog 3, dog 4
Blog Instead of being asleep at 19:56 on 12 November 2007, kitt created this:Somehow (who knows how!), we convinced Andy that he should let us dog sit his two dogs. Andy's dad dropped the dogs off this afternoon, so Blue and Shadow were in the house when I arrived home from work.
I wandered around the back of the house when I arrived home, to look in the back window to see what the dogs were doing. When I wandered around back, Annie ran up to me to greet me, as is her style. Bella didn't arrive shortly thereafter, which is her style. After a moment, Annie disappeared into the back yard, and I continued my walk to the back window.
Looking in, I realized why Bella didn't come rushing outside. Blue was nose to the door. Shadow was right behind him. Annie was nowhere to be found. Bella, however, was perched up on top of the couch at the highest, softest, most easily dog-approachable spot in the livingroom, surveying her minions.
A quick rap on the window, a quick turn to the side, and an EXPLOSION of dog fur, and warm doggie breath greeted me in the form of Blue, who nearly knocked me over, and Shadow who finished the job Blue failed at.
Ah, yes, these next few days are going to be fun.
