I hope you make mistakes

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.  Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.  So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.  Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”  ― Neil Gaiman

Shamelessly poached that from another blog I read today. I love it. Just paying it forward.

Speaking of mistakes, I was fairly confident I'd made the first one of 2014 as I was getting dressed. I had the option of working from home- an option which allows me to stay in fuzzy socks/flannel pants/fluffy robe until I feel sufficiently warm and brave enough to put on real clothes. (Typically around 1:30 pm when I worry the mailman may knock on the door with something that didn't fit in the mailbox.)

Trading my warm cocoon of cotton comfort for far less snugly work clothes (Ok, I'm wearing jeans.) felt like a big fat mistake. I decided yesterday that I would go into the office today because 3 days at home by myself was too much. With all signs of Christmas disassembled, packed away, and wrestled into their crawl space caves, the entire mountain of laundry cleaned and put away (Well, my clothes are put away. Seth's socks are a mountain on the table because I draw the line at sorting socks. Mind. Numbing. And you always end up with an odd number, so never really feel like you've 100% finished the task at hand.), and all artwork hung on the walls (read: no longer leaning against the wall!!), I was facing the reality that one more day at home would likely find me in sweatpants for the 4th day in a row and would leave me with zero excuses not to get into the bathroom and scrub the shower. 

(It's not that we have a filthy shower -just your standard 3-weeks-of-soap-scum buildup- but I have a bit of a mental block around cleaning bathrooms. I attribute it to the fact that when I was working as a housekeeper, I was the 'dry girl', and had my trusty rock star partner in crime KT as 'wet girl'. I vacuumed, made beds, emptied trash, dusted, she put gloves on and went to work with toilets and showers. 

Bathroom scrubbing avoidance is a powerful motivator. I'm not saying I think I will ever warm up today or that I won't go directly home and into flannel/sweatpants/heavy blanket mode, but I am saying that I'm kind of hoping my first mistake of the new year can be a little more significant.