The audacity of failure

I love me a good challenge, even though I tend to fizzle out after a few days or weeks. That used to make me feel like a quitter, but now I see that I’m actually making slow progress in developing new and better habits, so what the hell.

Grandma always said, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” God, I hated that. But see, that’s where I really failed. I gave up the first or second time I didn’t succeed, largely out of embarrassment, which made me feel like more of a failure than ever. This became a habit over time until it seemed like the normal way to live: don’t risk embarrassment; don’t try anything hard. And fercrissake, don’t BLOG about it when you do!

Well, screw that.

I’m here to tell the world that I fail all the time. I’m a horrible failure at pretty much everything I try–the first time. And often, the second. But the third time, not so much. I’ve learned in the past few months of trying new things that each time gets a little better.

Sharon’s Independence Days Challenge is based on the idea that in order to become free of corporate domination, we need to do something toward our own food independence every day, even if it’s only one thing. Sounds like a bite I can chew. Here’s the list of choices:

1. Plant something.
2. Harvest something.
3. Preserve something.
4. Prep something.
5. Cook something [try new recipes/skills].
6. Manage your reserves.
7. Work on local food systems.

So, in the spirit of food independence, today I:

• Sewed a sprouting bag out of some muslin [#4 - prep something].
• Started some anasazi beans to soak for sprouting [also #4 plus #5, learning a new cooking skill].
• Made yogurt [#2 - preserve something. Did you know that yogurt is a way of preserving milk? I read that somewhere. Cool!]

Oh, and last night I decluttered my IRL desktop [decluttering counts as #4, prepping.] I can actually SEE it now.

Yeehaw!