Pink Flamingos and Epic Fails.
Trying to jump back into regularly posting, I thought about joining the Finish the Sentence Friday gang.
That is, till I read the sentence.
When I think Epic Fail, I think . . .
Gosh. That’s kind of personal. Sure I could write about another person’s epic fail (or my perception there of).
A big movie that bombed. A politician who screwed up.
But of course that’s not the point. The point is looking at my life and asking the question, what makes me think Epic Fail?
Well, honestly we could just take a little tour around this room I’ve been trying to claim for my office. As the rest of the house has transformed to a somewhat molting swan, this room has become my dumping ground. My Portrait of Doran Gray clutterfest.
Failure is lurking in every nook and crannie.
This mountain of stuff. Part of this is the last pile of Christmas clutter that hasn’t made it up to the attic. Part Lord only knows. One of the Amazon boxes hasn’t even been opened. It contains a pair of plastic pink flamingos I got for my garden. It doesn’t seem right to subject them to the bleak rain and cold.
Next up a two-fer. A karate statue that needs the top glued back on and a pepper plant I brought inside to spare it a cold, frigid demise from freezing nighttime temps.
Seems I just sentenced it to a slow, painful death.
And then there is this drying basil from my garden.
Notice the lovely blue ribbon.
That will probably still be here till the day they carry me out of here in a wooden crate.
My road bike and its flat back tire. Ugh. Those few beautiful warm days we get in the winter. No bike rides for me.
Yes, when I look back over this room and my life — there certainly were things that seems like failures, big failures at the time.
But time has a way of lighting the path of perspective.
The karate trophy isn’t fixed so fail, but triumph that my youngest — little gamer — found a sport/discipline that he enjoys.
The basil and peppers. Fail. The idea of drying my own herbs is so hip. Too hip for me I guess. Same with keeping a potted pepper alive indoors all winter. But triumph that my gardens, the proper ones outside really do rock. Something I knew nothing about seven years ago.
My bike. Fail: Really should have taken the time to change that blasted inner tube by now. Triumph: I can change bike inner tubes albeit slowly. Something I couldn’t say a few years ago.
Not really much to say about the pile of Christmas clutter other than I just need to attack it. The pink flamingos will go out in my garden. I ordered the silly things because I wanted company for my gnome and my dad had a pink flamingo in his back yard. A total joke for my intimidating-looking, conservative father. But the bird became such a normal fixture out amongst the azaleas, it just made sense. Surely everyone should have a plastic pink flamingo in their garden.
The more I live the more up turns down and wrong becomes right.
Epic Fails?
Maybe not so much.
Thoughts?
hahaha…If I would love look around my home…there are various such examples of my failure 😉
You are too modest, my friend 🙂
TTIF…phew!
At one time every child in my neighborhood was bringing me their bikes and new inner tubes. I was pretty good at changing them.
January was so going to be my month. My house was going to get organized from top to bottom and thoroughly cleaned. I was also going to blog about it every day. Epic Fail!
Yes! Your home feels ever so welcome. It could be mine. I’m reading SoulSpace for my online book club. It is wonderful and so inspirational about keeping things that are meaningful and saying goodbye to the rest. Check it out if you can. I’m off to clean!
SoulSpace. What a wonderful title. I’m going to look that up.
Vanessa. In January I was going to purge and organize the attic. Guess how that project is going?
It’s funny. I hang on to things or maybe hang on to the expectation. Like that darn pepper. I’m taking it outside right this minute.
This is my first visit to your blog, but those pictures made me wonder if we aren’t somehow related. I have corners like that in my house, too . . . But now I guess I don’t have to think of them as signs of failure! 🙂
Great post!
Glad to help. :). I am going to take the time to get this room together. But I’ve been saying that for a few months now. :/
Love that your office looks like mine does! And guess what? I have an unopened Amazon box down there too! I just wish it had pink flamingos in it. Those always remind me of the movie Gnomio and Juliette – a cute kid’s movie where there’s a pink flamingo and he just wants love… thanks for linking up with Finish the Sentence, Jamie! I’m glad you did!
Well Kristi, hopefully I’ll be spending more time in my decluttered office blogging with FTSF. 🙂
I’d be a the friend that nudges you to clean that spot telling you how much it’ll make you feel better 😉 while offering to also throw away your dead plants. Lol! Sometimes I either throw away stuff to quickly or out them away. Those flaningos would have gone missing into well into spring when I’d finally remember where I put them. Glad you linked up with FTSF.
Yes Kenya. I washed my hands of that plant. And I haven’t thought about it. At all. Well kind of not at all.
I am constantly battling disorganizations. My office is a mess and I have to much stuff. All failure, but yes, not epic in the scheme of things. Although, I think I’m going to check out the book (Soul Space) that Kelly suggested….
You are a brave, brave woman.
I would never NEVER be able to show pics of my office, in a similar, dare I say, worse state. Also, plants fear me.
Kudos to see the true win with every “fail” – I’ve seen over and over in these posts a trail of enlightenment. Very nice.
“But time has a way of lighting the path of perspective.”
So very true, Jamie, and I have found myself feeling the same lately. I love how you use the word “triumph” as the opposite of “fail” – such a grander, prouder, more expressive word than “success.”
I’m heading over to Amazon to order a pink flamingo!
First of all, great to see you on FTSF! I’ll be enjoying coming back here next week! I like the way that you see the items in your house as emblems of success rather than badges of failure. It’s true that we see so many thing in life completely backwards — awesome that you’re sharing the positive spin in your world!
I too have a pair of pink flamingos still in the box in my garage! It’s wonderful that you’ve turned these little failures into reminders of wins. Such a good lesson.
I love the flamingos. Those are becoming harder to buy now, ya know? I don’t think these are epic fails. I think they are the signs of a live well-lived, with focus on amazing things and adventure and opportunity!
This just makes me feel so at home–right down to the sad pepper plant. I have one in the sunroom that I drug inside too. I told myself it was a brave attempt to save the plant for its sake. Truth was that I was just not ready for the garden and summer to be over for the year.