Jung SuWon-imal Sophie is really Sam!
Yes, I admit to it. I was wrong, and made a mistake. Cute little Jung SuWon-imal squirrel Sophie is actually a boy squirrel. Of course, once I mentioned this fact to some family member, immediately they ask me: So how do you know?
Well, er, uhm, you see, they don’t wear clothes! One day, who I thought was Sophie but turned out to be Sam, came right up to the sliding glass door with an acorn, sat down and proceeded to eat it with gusto. He must not have been able to see inside the window, because on the other side of the glass, less than 2 feet away, there I was, enjoying watching him eat. If the glass hadn’t been there, I could have reached out and touched him. And being so close, and him not wearing any pants, well, what can I say…..
This whole episode reminded me of on of my favorite teachings of my Martial Arts teacher, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim. “Learn from your mistakes!” Let me quote from her book, “Seven Steps to Inner Power.”
“Willingness to learn from your mistakes is the backbone to everything that can be considered progress. How many mistakes do you think Alexander Graham Bell made in inventing the first telephone that conncted one room in his house to another? Now telephone technology is developing that allows us to see the person you are speaking with on the other side of the globe. How many mistakes did the engineers make while developing this technology? Who cares? The object is to succeed, not to count your mistakes.
Mistakes are also essential to your progress. The minute you decide to achieve a goal that’s important to you, you will make mistakes. How did we humans get the idea that to be perfect we couldn’t make mistakes? Never making a mistake does not make us perfect. Never repeating a mistake (after we learn from it) is as perfect as we need to be.
Imagine the freedom you’ll feel when you don’t have to worry about defending or hiding your mistakes. Experience the increased energy that comes form this freedom! Welcome your mistakes into your consciousness as your friends and teachers!” (Seven Steps to Inner Power, page 26)
Tags: Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, Jung SuWon, Mistakes, Squirrel
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November 1, 2008 at 11:19 am
Thank you – I laughed so hard!!!! That’s the most creative acknowledgment of a mistake I’ve ever read!