Mistakes

I ask for courage
To make more mistakes
To consider each one a gateway to bolder dreams
Not to be deterred from another experiment
When I am chastened by the foundering of my effort
But to wed my comfort to the discomfort of failure
To explore a little ego-crushing danger
To be a beginner
Always a beginner
Absorbing
Assimilating
Learning
And unlearning even more
I ask for courage
To abandon my attachment to outcome
To push the edges of my expression
To fear less the loom of judgement
To take risks
To go too far
Sometimes
To clear my creative skies
From the shroud of perfection
For it hangs upon tomorrow
And invites procrastination
To remember that living
Mightn't be as compelling
Were it not for our exotic diversity
Our mélange of vivid hue and form
Made possible only
By random copy errors in DNA
I ask for courage to live with mystery
To plunge into the chilly unknown
And to emerge triumphant
Having explored new territory
Should I pick a path
Then change my mind
I can
And will begin all over
In that there is no shame
I am not bound to who I was yesterday
Nor to who I am today
I am born of the natural world
Ever-changing
Full of contradiction.