Fail Better

This is a portrait of Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist and playwright, from the back. He had great ears. I originally saw this framed in my aunt's art studio. Ever since it has become a mantra of mine. I am not afraid of failure. I think it's a stupid word, but we use it because it's the easiest way to describe something that went sour. It is a word that should never be used for people.

I've been thinking a lot about FAIL. IVF was a technical failure. But I am not a failure. This chapter of my life is not a failure. Elder Walter Gonzales said,

When all doors seem to be closed, when everything else seems to fail, He will not fail you. Christ will help and is the way out.

This gives me tremendous security, especially since I know what it feels like to have all the doors closed and nothing work. President Howard W. Hunter said that Christ is "the ultimate man for all seasons." I am learning, through life's varied seasons, that this is true. He is the man for hopeful harvests and confusing, foggy inversions. He is the man for daffodil springs and sizzling, still summers. He is constant. No matter the forecast, He will be there.

I've also been thinking about BETTER. Back in the day Greg and I used to pay for a trainer. At the end of every workout he'd say, "There is no limit to better." I love that there is no cap on betterment and joy and happiness and increase. One's cup really can run over forever.

It is easy to tell people that are having a rough time, "Everything will be okay." It's even easier if you are saying it from a personally happy place. It is another thing entirely to say from the rough place, "Everything is okay." And that is what I am saying. Everything really is okay.

Failure is just a starting point for another try.

*"Samuel Beckett" coloured lithograph by English artist Tom Phillips, 1984, quote from Beckett's "Worstward Ho"