It doesn't matter why you made a mistake. You deserve unconditional grace and forgiveness anyway. In order to have self compassion, we need radical compassion for others.
Love this. I make a lot of mistakes, mainly because I’m a bit neuro-spicy and shit at social cues. Luckily, my parents were the same. They were never bothered about cocking stuff up. They’d just apologise, where appropriate offer to make amends, and move on. Being able to stuff up and be OK with it is one of the biggest and best lessons anyone can ever learn in life. Being in a LOT of trouble at school helps, too. Once you’ve done the walk of shame to the head teacher’s office and been bollocked a few times you start to realise that however grim it is, you still come out the other side. Although by the end the head teacher would give me a cup of coffee and a biscuit, have a chat and then, after an hour, look at her watch and say, ‘Well, I think that’s long enough for everyone to think you’ve had a proper telling off, you’d better go back to lessons.’ Sorry, slight digression there but I had to mention her because she was awesome.
Love this. I make a lot of mistakes, mainly because I’m a bit neuro-spicy and shit at social cues. Luckily, my parents were the same. They were never bothered about cocking stuff up. They’d just apologise, where appropriate offer to make amends, and move on. Being able to stuff up and be OK with it is one of the biggest and best lessons anyone can ever learn in life. Being in a LOT of trouble at school helps, too. Once you’ve done the walk of shame to the head teacher’s office and been bollocked a few times you start to realise that however grim it is, you still come out the other side. Although by the end the head teacher would give me a cup of coffee and a biscuit, have a chat and then, after an hour, look at her watch and say, ‘Well, I think that’s long enough for everyone to think you’ve had a proper telling off, you’d better go back to lessons.’ Sorry, slight digression there but I had to mention her because she was awesome.
This is the most beautiful and powerful paragraph I have ever read. Thank you for writing and sharing this.
Yay! Not sure which one you mean but I'm so glad it resonated with you :)
Oh sorry! I should have been specific. The paragraph about deserving unconditional grace. Love it!