I remember as a child always being reluctant to write with pens. I preferred pencils, because things could be erased, edited… fixed. There was no admission of failure. Even the erasable pens left smudges on the page, which irritated me because they served as a reminder that something else was there before. I didn’t like the mess on the paper when I was forced to cross something out. As a perfectionist, I never liked being associated with error.

Here’s the thing, try as we might, life cannot be lived in pencil. We do not have the ability to erase mistakes as if they never existed. Life is messy and it’s supposed to be. The older we get, the more mistakes we accumulate and our paper becomes one big, beautiful mess. There’s no such thing as grabbing a fresh new piece and starting over either.

We should not only accept our mistakes, but appreciate the lessons we gain from them. Oddly enough, a mistake can be a blessing in disguise designed to help us change for the better. Experience truly is the best teacher. We are all at fault for playing the “what if” game and agonizing over things we wish we had done differently. Recognizing that we do not have the ability to go back in time can free us from unnecessary anxiety and pain. The bottom line is regrets and what if’s are a waste of time and do not lend to healing or progress. If we are truly remorseful for our actions or decisions, the only productive thing to do is take the lesson learned on our journey ahead and work on bettering ourselves. In essence, make the changes; do things differently the next time around.

We must learn to live in pen with the understanding that without failure, there would not be development. The cross outs in our lives are the scars that make us human and keep us humble. The knowledge we gain from every misstep makes us the ever-evolving creatures we are. We can take comfort in the fact that if we are unhappy with the direction our lives are headed in, we have the ability to cross it out and move forward. That cross out remains on our page so we remember how we got where we are today. We should not expect to always get things right the first time around. Every cross out on your page is tattoo earned symbolizing growth , evolution and a new path chosen.

-Meyer’s Grace

“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.”- Frida Kahlo