Be Grateful for Failures
Our focus this week — Nov 5-Nov 11: “Perseverance”
Today’s MotD: Be Grateful for Failures. We’re encouraged to be grateful for our failures. Why ? Because they provide us with feedback. They let us know that something needs to be changed, corrected, or undone…before we can move forward. If something didn’t work one way, then maybe try it a different way the next time.
For instance, up until recently I had yet to forgive myself for my first marriage—I was 22, what the hell did I know at that time. Three months in I knew it was a mistake but I persisted for another six and half years because, at the time, I was a “good Catholic girl”—we weren’t supposed to get divorced. Besides, my mother modeled for me how she stayed in her marriage despite how miserable she was…so if she could do it, I better buckle up and follow suit.
About five years into the marriage I went to therapy. A year later I realized the marriage was a failure and filed for divorce. For the longest time I felt like I failed that marriage and that I failed myself for getting married in the first place because I didn’t pick up on the obvious (to me now) signs telling me not to.
Looking at it now as feedback rather than failure, I can see where I gained some valuable insight going through that experience—the most important of which is that I learned what I didn’t want in a husband. Seven years and a couple more relationship “feedback” experiences later, I had a lot more clarity going into my second marriage. We celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary this year.
How about you ? What’s your take on some of the “failures” you’ve experienced ? Do you beat yourself up about them ? Are you open to seeing them as feedback—just data that needs to be assessed, analyzed, and acted upon in some way ?
BTW…Here’s the before…the front and back view of today’s puzzle piece and the pretty ceramic box that holds all my numbers from which I randomly choose each day’s puzzle piece number:
Peace & Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
Creating Mandalas 🔆 Awakening Inner Harmony
ABOUT THE 2025 Mandalas of the Day
Throughout the year, I’ll be building one large (48”x48”) Tibetan-styled Mandala one piece at a time…one puzzle piece at a time, that is. The mandala design and the reversed puzzle side were printed on artist-quality watercolor paper. The forward facing puzzle side was printed on a 48”x48” wood panel.
Each day, at random, I’ll be painting in watercolors one of the 365 watercolor puzzle pieces, that by the end of the year will become Archangel Mandala #4. Read more about the Archangel Series. The word/message for each piece will be inspired by Melody Beattie’s book “52 Weeks of Conscious Contact”.
Ultimately, the message of this mandala is about how we are all uniquely part of the one.
Mandala of the Day 