Failure

There is the phrase that explains that failure is only good if you learn from your mistakes. To this I must disagree. Failure is good if you get up again. There is no way to not learn something from failure. We have this false illusion that we are in control. Therefore it can actually put you into a worse state if you follow the first way of looking at failure. I can see you sitting there pondering whether... "Did I learn from my mistake this time"? There then comes the battle with your ego and you regret that you did or didn't do something. I know what this is like as I've been there. Thankfully, there is no way not to learn something from failure. My good friend Paul recently opened my eyes to this even more. He has recently thrown in the towel on his business. Over the past few years he started his own company making creative marshmallows and crafting them after the wonderful experience of having S'mores when camping. His company was called Stuff'n Mallows. He told me that when he was interviewed by large companies, the first thing they wanted to know was how many times the entrepreneur had failed. This life is a process of getting up and climbing another mountain. I really go back to the bubble analogy. When I was a child I would sit there and examine bubbles. I would look at them and try to determine when they would pop. I would look into their creamy outline and see the colors swish around. What I noticed was that when the surface became perfectly clear that was the moment in which they popped. Only when they were void of color did this happen. I think in many ways this is a metaphor for life. We're always climbing another mountain in the motivation and delight of becoming a little more pure. Awakening happens when our bubble pops. Struggles will still occur, mountains will still have to be climbed, but our perspective on how we view the next path will not be centered around effort. In this form, the life process becomes effortless. Perhaps we're all bubbles. You could say that we're "slow dancing in a burning room" as John Mayer has told us. It puts a romantic edge to the process of life, but I'm going with bubbles today. So go examine a bubble for yourself. Let me know what you think. Color is the spice of life itself. It can tell so much about us. Sound is color, I feel. It's that realization that the presence of those difficulties and hoops and swings is what makes the juice worth the squeeze. I'm imagining watermelon juice, but you can choose lemon or orange if you so desire. The world is your oyster.

As a vegan yesterday I was kind of down last night as I opened up my wrap to find some roast beef in the outskirts of a tortilla surface of a previously believed veggie roll. I became frustrated. It hadn't happened in some time. I went to bed regretful. Deep down, though, I could see it as a process. The universe was telling me to let go. There is so much more to life than the limited confines that we can hold ourselves too. If we don't see that however, then that is good too as it's another failure and another mountain to climb again. It's okay if you climb it again in the same way as well as there is no way that you can't climb it differently. There will always exist the simple fact that you are one day older for instance. It really helps to know that you can't do it wrong. Your ego decides what's wrong and right and this can only create pain. I'd say drop this concept. So wherever you are in life now, know that you can't do it wrong and that you are exactly where you're supposed be now. That's nice to hear!

Blessings,

John