When Mistakes Happen
Russian River! Here we come! This is a much anticipated camping trip Jia and I have been looking forward to for weeks now! We are going to camp out by the river, in the trees, under the starry sky by ourselves without kids! A weekend getaway just for us!
We were driving up on the long winding mountain roads. Every turn presented a new breath taking view: the endless green vineyards extending to the horizon, the wavy mountains at the back, the bright orange sun setting inch by inch glowing the entire sky. I rolled down the window. Wow, the fall breeze passing through my fingers felt so good! “Let’s pull over and take a picture!” I said to Jia.
As we walked back to the car, Jia murmured, “There is no river on the mountains……”. It was just loud enough for me to catch it. I shouted in disbelief, “You are right! There’s no river on the mountains! There might be waterfall, but no river…… River is down in the valley. We are on the wrong route!” We were supposed to arrive at Russian River area in about an hour. 40 minutes in, we just realized that we were driving up and farther away from the destination.
It didn’t take us long to realize what went wrong — Jia missed typing the last digit of the address in Google Map.
The sun was set and it was getting dark really fast. The winding road going down hill all of sudden became scary and not romantic at all. We were hungry. We were tired. We were stupid for not realizing this mistake earlier, much earlier.
I broke the silence, “You are soooo good at driving mountain roads. I would’ve been freaking out and so frustrated by now. You are very calm and in control.” I continued, “You know, I love that we took the detour. If we didn’t, we would not have discovered the mountains and saw such beautiful views!” Jia took a big exhale and said, “You are still praising me? I’m grateful that you are not blaming me for the mistake.” “Why would I?” I said, “It was a truly beautiful detour. I love it! Thank you for making it happen!” The rest of the trip was full of joy and laughs. Looking back, the detour was definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip.
Things could’ve turned to the opposite direction. I had all the reasons in the world to blame Jia. I could let my anger devour him. We could fight on whose fault it was through and through. But that would not do anyone any good. It would not alter the situation. It would probably ruin the trip.
When things don’t turn out the way you expect and you desperately want to blame yourself or others, try below three rescues,
Believe all things happen for a reason. We might not be able to comprehend it yet but we choose to believe.
Look for the beauty in the unexpected.
Be thankful for what we have instead of mourning over what we would’ve achieved.
One of Brian’s favorite books when he was young is “Beautiful Oops!” He would ask me to read it over and over again to him, and could not stop giggling when the author turned something bad into something magical,
Spill into elephant
Bent paper into penguin
Drips of paint into tires and piggy
At the end of the book, something rather profound is shared “When you think you have made a mistake, think of it as an opportunity to make something beautiful.” I think it’s a great lesson for both children and adults.
Sliver lining - Mistakes happen. When they do, it’s an opportunity to discover something beautiful. If it weren’t the detour, Jia and I would not have had this special moment to us. :)
