There is a tendency in life (and certainly online) to show only the perfect. Unfortunately, a beautiful picture is just that – beautiful, but only a picture. It doesn’t always tell the whole story. When I started this blog, the purpose wasn’t to show off a perfect life, but rather, a real one.
There are always going to be moments when things don’t go our way, aren’t what we hoped for, and we feel frustration for all the imperfections of the things we can’t control.
A nice little example is my effort with pickles this year… I kept waiting this summer to share my newest amazing fantastic pickle-findings with you, but after three botched attempts, I need to chalk this one up to failure. Cucumbers have a very short growing season and I missed it. This is not to say that there are no pickles. I made loads of them. They taste okay, but they didn’t turn out how I wanted them to. Some were too big and are floating around in the jars. Some turned out a bit wrinkly. Some didn’t seal correctly. The funny part is that I couldn’t let it go. I tried the damn thing three times!! At some point in time, Albert Einstein described insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. This pickle effort could possibly be described as cuckoo, crazy, or possibly insane.
When do you decide you have had enough? How do you move past hurdles when it becomes clear that success is not within your grasp? How do you know when to change gears? At some point mid-August, I had to admit defeat in the 2013 pickle category and it didn’t feel good. But, that’s the truth. My message today is:
Know that you aren’t the only one to get frustrated.
Know that you aren’t the only one who fails.
We all do.
Truly.
We just usually don’t like to admit it, and we certainly don’t want to broadcast it to the world or Facebook. So, without further ado, here are some photos of imperfect pickles. I will try again next year. Or I won’t. We’ll see how I’m feeling about it next summer.
Poole Party of 5 