The Noise of Failure Growing Beautiful

When the current moment turns out less than ideal.

When I made illustrations for Pat Zietlow Miller’s book WHEN I’M WITH YOU, I created scenes that captured my ideal picture of summer. It’s something of a super-power of writers and artists; the ability to re-capture wonderful memories and imagine up dream-worlds.

But this past summer looked very little like those ideal pictures—there were no vacations or camping trips, lawn-game grill-outs with friends, time in state parks swimming, hiking, or paddling down a river. It was a season of heavy work hours, a miscellaneously full calendar, and multiple cold/flu bugs. Idealistic pictures are fun and inspirational, but on the downside, they can create discontent with the often messy realness of What Is. Speaking for myself, all-or-nothing and perfectionistic thinking gets in the way of satisfaction with small, less-than-ideal versions of things.

My current book-deadline work hours will continue on into the fall, but there’s still a little time here in Minnesota to catch warm-ish weather days. Instead of giving up all-together, how about breaking down some of those big un-met summer dreams? Let them become smaller, accessible moments of enjoyment and satisfaction sprinkled between the work-days.

Here’s a modified list of smaller summer-y moments that I can roll over into Fall:

Doze in a Hammock

Catch a Sunset

Read by Water

Sit in a Garden

Walk in the Woods

Roast Something Over A Campfire

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Was there anything you missed out on last season that can transfer over to the next? Can any bigger dreams be broken down into smaller things that you can access now?

Because, after all….

Above me, wind does its best
to blow leaves off
the aspen tree a month too soon.
No use wind. All you succeed
in doing is making music, the noise
of failure growing beautiful.

~ Bill Holm (August in Waterton, Alberta)