Beautiful Disaster

This phrase has been popping up in my life a lot lately, so I decided to write a blog post about it. Technically, most of my ventures and ideas have been beautiful disasters. I have a super-cute box filled with notecards that have ideas, book titles, and websites I need to buy chicken-scratched on them and stuffed away only to be reviewed once a year often accompanied by, “What the hell did I mean by that?” I have four unfinished novels in my Google Dive (and ideas for dozens—okay hundreds—more in my Trello).

As I wade into the vision that I have for Mad Genius Studios, I have already experienced many beautiful disasters. Only three people at our first yoga class. Not getting enough folks out to the first Shop & Sip. Our new parking lot leaves a lot to be desired and requires another investment before our next event. I sent a copy-and-pasted email to several folks talking about their tea company when I should have changed it to “whatever-they-sell” in my text. I’ve dropped the ball on some other responsibilities as I go full-force into prepping Mad Genius Studios for success. I’ve slacked on my hot yoga commitment of 5+ classes per week. I’ve been barely eating and when I do, it’s something dumb like Taco Bell or french fries and mussels since it’s so darn fast.

Again, I am a beautiful disaster. But really, aren’t we all?

We all have amazing days where we feel like we could conquer the world, and other days where just getting out of bed feels like a huge success (I’ve pulled my laptop into my bed more times than I’d like to admit and worked half the day away before even putting my feet on the floor). We’ve all had heart-to-hearts with loved ones where real truth comes out and you either realize that the relationship is a beautiful disaster and needs to end, or that you’re a beautiful disaster and for real, you need to work on some things.

But there will be more beautiful disasters no matter what you do. Like when my trusty Mazda Tribute had been mistreated by a previous serviceman and the rotors gave out on the way to a friends’ trip to the Florida Keys and we were forced to drive the entire Keys in the dark (beautiful) and add a day to our trip (not a disaster at all—got an amazing all-you-can-eat crab dinner out of the situation). Or when I lost my favorite thrift store owl pendant necklace (haven’t found the beauty in that disaster yet).

Or when the UPS truck backed into our tree and ruined our 20+ year-old pine tree. It’s a disaster for sure, and I have yet to find the beauty in that mess. But I do know that finding the beauty in every disaster—or even just inconvenience—is one of the ways to live a life more “The Monk Wo Sold His Ferrari”-philosophy-focused and keeps me striving toward Maslow’s Self-Actualization level.

So I hope you will search for the beautiful in your disasters, or just in your every day life. I’ve been starting and ending my day with acknowledging 3 things I’m grateful for, and that can make any disastrous day a day that was also beautiful, or at least had beautiful moments.