The sun is shining
my bike tire is fixed
I’ve figured out how to delegate some of the work that was stressing me out
and we don’t have to replace the furnace.
My perspective is much improved today.
Ironically, it was this universal truth that I found strangely comforting last night.
I will disappoint you.
It’s true.
I will let you down.
If you are my employee
and you always expect me to be fair
and never to be selfish or forgetful
I will let you down.
If you are my friend
and you expect me to remember your birthday
and always think of calling you when you’re sad
I will disappoint.
If you are my daughter
and you think that mommies should never get angry
and always have time to listen
I will fail you.
If you are a busy volunteer
and you think that I should phone you regularly
encourage you and show appreciation for your efforts
I will fall short of your expectations.
If you are a blog reader
and you visit expecting to be entertained each and every time
by elegant prose and witty anecdotes
I will miss the mark again and again.
If you are my mother, husband, sister, team member, neighbour, brother, or just a person I see on the bus once in awhile,
I will most certainly let you down.
It’s not that I intend to.
In fact, I try hard not to,
and there may be long stretches of time when I live up to all of your expectations.
But somewhere, somehow
I will disappoint each and every one of you.
That is the way of human relationships.
There is disappointment sometimes.
Because, like you,
I am wonderfully and awkwardly human.
And flawed.
But that’s not the end of the story.
These three simple words in a Martyn Joseph song
made the universal truth bearable last night.
“Waiting for grace”
I am waiting for grace.
It is grace that lets me get up this morning
and try again.
It is grace that lets you forgive me when I fail.
It is grace that gives you understanding and compassion for my flaws.
It is grace that makes something beautiful out of the mistakes.
It is grace that makes love grow even in the face of disappointment.
This morning
I am waiting for grace.
Another piece of fine writing, and truthful too.
Beautifully put and just what I needed to hear today. Along with awareness that we will disappoint is forgiveness for those who disappoint us.
What a beautiful post. And all the more lovely given yesterday’s post. I appreciate your honesty.
A great post! I feel like I’m constantly disappointing people, and although it’s almost never intentional, it is what it is and I can’t always help it.You’ve written what I’ve wanted to say to so many. Thanks, Heather.
I wish I could just steal that from you.
I love both the post showing your dispair and the reply. I so wish we could all realize these thoughts and be more understanding and less demanding of everyone.
Absolutely filled with truth, beauty and pure honesty. A fantastic post.Thanks so much for sharing with all of us.
What a good thing for us all to remember (and from reading your prior post – we all have days like that – so must not be hard on each other!!!)
Lovely, Heather.We are all too human, and just trying to make it as best we can through the day.
I will print this and post it above my desk, as a reminder that we are all uman.Thanks heather.
So true, Heather.Beautifully said.But, even if it weren’t YOU would still be beautiful.
:)ah, yes. What a relief that no one is unique in this.
Just what I needed today. I goofed up at work and the powers that be conveniently overlooked the billions of things I’ve done right and chose to publicly drag me through the mud and humiliate me. Grace will allow me to rise tomorrow, enjoy my weekend, and somehow find the strength to go back to work on Monday. I just hope the powers that be find the grace to forgive an honest mistake that did not kill anyone, cost the company any money, or even embarrass them they way they did me. Perhaps I am still bitter, but grace will win out eventually. It always does. Thanks again for this. ♥
Oh, yes. Wrote out the Four Agreements for myself today as a reminder of this. Well put, Renée.
Good reminder, both about ourselves and about those upon whom we so easily and understandably pin our fondest hopes, sometimes demands. —
I’ve been reminded of the truth of your post these very days as I was reading a book by Madeleine L’Engle, who in an earlier stage of my life, was a significant author-mentor for me. I happened to be looking around the web then, about her, and discovered an article in the New Yorker some years ago in which she was revealed as “more compelling, flawed and human than the honed persona of the memoirs” (to quote a reviewer I forgot to get the name of). And proceeded to give details.
This shouldn’t have surprised me, as I’m a writer too and know that “persona” is inevitable and not necessarily a bad word either. In fact it can be an impossible burden to try and match what readers may have built one into on account of one’s writing–
Still it did jar me a little, this “human” layering, and I had to work a little on both ends of it, adjusting and understanding her as fellow (though much more prolific and famous, of course) writer, and then adjusting and understanding my own penchant to wish others into needing to be much more than they can possibly be…
Anyways, just a few thoughts your post provoked.
For sure, we all live by grace.