When I was a kid, we learned a little poem that had to do with predicting the weather:

“Red sky at night, sailors delight; Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.”

Trying to predict the weather lately has been a giant experiment.  The forecast says there will be a 50% chance of severe thunderstorms.  Really?  Gambling on the chances has made getting yard work done interesting, for sure.  Fortunately, the rain is WARM rain!

I am a person who enjoys experiments.  Cooking, gardening, Dixie, and even Jaxon are all experiments, in a way.  The hardest part about experiments is dealing with the failures. 

Lately, I feel like I have had a string of failures.

Jaxon is now eight months old.  We continue to attend training classes and practice what we learn every day.   We both enjoy the learning.  He went to the vet and made it through his minor surgery without issue (it was time to have him “altered”).  We have been moving along with minor still-puppy issues. 

This week it happened.

Full moon?

Jaxon has decided to upset the apple cart and create a new game right before bedtime.  I believe the game is called “Can I Push My Mom To The Brink of Her Sanity”.  Last night, he won the game.   I went to bed feeling like I am failing him, failing at training… total failure.

Truth?

He is an adolescent puppy who is still trying to get his people to engage and play.  Even at bedtime. 

The garden has been doing well this summer.  Squash are monsters.  Tomatoes are trees.  I was a couple of weeks late in planting they tomatoes, so they are still a bit behind in producing.  The good news is that the heavy-duty tomato trellis idea IS working at holding them upright!  Bad news?  The tomatoes are nearly a foot taller than the trellis… standing over five feet tall. 

There will be an adjustment made for next year.

I train at the gym faithfully three days a week, and work to get in at least two other days of some sort of physical activity.  There are days I feel I can conquer the world, and am so happy I committed to making fitness a part of my life.  There are other days I want to crawl back into bed.  On those days, the training efforts are getting in a nice walk.

I ask myself… is that failure?

I have to remind myself on days where I am feeling I have failed, that I am human.  I am not a machine.  I live in a world that is constantly changing and unpredictable.  Every day is an experiment, of sorts.  Every day I have the ability to make choices in how the experiment might play out.  I have to remember that I do not control all of the variables.  Heaven help us if I could!  Ha!

My biggest challenge is to be gentle with myself.  It is not about failure, but about learning and growing from the life I am given.   I will remind myself that with each new day, there is an opportunity.  I may not always get to choose the opportunity. 

What I DO with that opportunity is up to me.