Hey My Friday Follies Friends…
Well, here it is Friday again, so you know what that means – It’s Folly Time!!! Hot Diggity Dog! I hope you’re all doing better than ever and beginning this new month with enough September love in your heart to get you through December. Time is breaking the speed limit, but we have to pay the ticket, don’t we?
As I was noticing some of the thoughts traipsing across the cluttered fields of my mind, I remembered a lesson I learned when I was around 5 or 10 I guess…I was always fascinated with words, and maybe I thought I might seem smart if I used words with more than one syllable – I don’t know. But anyway I had fumbled onto the world “jalopy.” I knew what it meant, but I had never heard anyone say it and so didn’t know if it was pronounced jálopy (accent on jal) or jalópy (accent on lopy). No, I didn’t look it up in a dictionary – I was only 5 or 10.
My parents and my aunt and I were in a car going somewhere and lo and behold there was an old beat-up half-burned car sitting in a field that we were passing by. It was my chance to test a new word, but is it jálopy (jal-op-y) or jalópy (ja-lop-y)? Hmmm. I had to act fast, so I just went for it and said “Look at that ol’ jálopy over there (accent on the jál.) They all exploded in laughter in unison, so I thought I’d play with them and pretend they hurt my feelings and act like I was about to cry because they had laughed at me for saying it wrong. When I saw that they felt bad about it, I laughed at them and said, “Just kidding. Ha. Ha. Ha.” Oh Lordy. Wasn’t growing up fun? Thank God for dictionaries with those marks that tell you just how to pronounce a word.
But the lesson is better than just how you say a word: take a chance. The worst it will be is you might look not so smart, and I’ve been there, haven’t you? But mis-takes are not all bad. They’re just missed takes, you know. They’re usually little stuff in the whole picture. I remember once I was supposed to represent my school in a talent show, and I was asked to sing a song, so I talked to my friend who played piano for me and we decided I’d do some song with the word “river” in it. Well, I thought she was talking about one song and she thought I was talking about another. We didn’t rehearse, didn’t even pick a key. I started singing one song and she started playing another. Dum Dum – that would be me – needless to say got a horrible mention. Oh Lord again. But because of that blunder, I vowed NEVER to be unprepared again and that decision has served me well. So I’m thankful for those mistakes.
If you’ve made a real mistake you’re sorry for, don’t waste your thought space by rehashing it after it’s settled. Some things you can’t redo, but you can avoid them in the future. Celebrate life and just move on.
Okey dokey. I’ll wrap it up by saying, Have a fantabulous weekend – that’s better than fabulous you know – for the sweetest people on the planet. Do something that makes you happy and healthy and brings you heart peace. OOOOweeeee I love you. Until next time…
Sincerely,
Miss Hermit