Do over! Do over!

I ended my first post with the question- If life is a test why aren't we born with a lifetime supply of #2 pencils? And true to form, Mike came up with the perfect witty reply ( with the very first comment to my very first post on my very first blog- thank you Mike) something like- forget the pencils, I need erasers!

Then Camille said she thought Mike had said it all, there was no need for her to comment and I thought - what if we could have "do overs" in real life?

Remember when you were a kid, trying to do something and if you messed up all you had to do was yell "Do Over!" and you got another chance?

You know what I mean, right? Like when you are learning a really complicated pool shot and you miss and your practice partner says "do over, try again", and they set the shot back up, just like the first one never happened and you shoot that one shot over and over until you get it right because this is something you need to be able to do flawlessly if you want to win the game.

Just think- How many times in your life would a do over come in handy? I can think of a couple times I've said things that would have been better left unsaid- a "do over" would have been handy at those times.

I could have used a "do over" the day I decided to go to the top of the mountain when all I had skied was the bunny hill- honestly, it just didn't look that BIG from the bottom! In case you don't ski, the rule is what goes up, must come down- one way or another - and in my case it was head over heels all the way down the mountain, realistically I would say I actually skied a total of 5 foot of a 2 mile run.

"Do overs" would be nice when you get into the rhythm of your chosen career and find its waltzing when you want to be jitterbugging. Not uncommon I think, It's not necessarily "bad" it's just not fantastic! If you had a "do over" on your career- what would you do? Me? I would go to the University of Hawaii, become a marine biologist and study sea turtles.

I can think of a few times I could have used a "do over" in my personal relationships. The hurtful words that could have been erased, the thoughtless action I could have un-done, The help I could have offered when asked by someone who really needed help.

I wonder, by visualizing the times when I could have used a "do over", can I learn something that would help me the next time the situation occurs? I think so.

Even though we think we don't have "do overs" in real life, maybe we do. Maybe we really can shoot that one shot over and over until we get it right because this is something we need to be able to do flawlessly if we want to win the game of life.