Second time's the charm

You may not know this.  I was fired from my first teaching job.  It was Fargo North High School.  It was probably justified.  But if I hadn't been fired, I wouldn't have wandered down the interstate (okay, give me a break, there wasn't one of those then!) to Watertown and have found the most amazing career any person could have.  I loved the school.  I loved the kids.  I loved the people with whom I worked.  And face it, because I found my niche, I was able to retire nine years ago and do what I want!  How perfect is that?

You may not know this.  My wife was my second fiance.  The first didn't work so well.  Suffice it to say, there were things that precluded the eventuality.  Thank God!  I can think of no better pair of choices to have made in my life!

You may not know this.  I can't make a Bundt cake come out of the pan.  And here's the rub.  In this case, the second, third, fourth, and fifth times were not the charm.  In fact, it still hangs out there as a monumental failure in my cooking repertoire.  You want Bundt?  Get it somewhere else!

You may not know this.  One of my favorite books in the whole wide world is written by a minister!  John Maxwell is his name, and the title of the book is Failing Forward.  I taught the book to my Career Readiness class.  I try to live the book.  Here are the principles, as I understand them.  1) Failure is an event.  It is not a life style.  It is not a label.  It happens (and there are two letters missing from that pronoun!).  2)  Failure is not fair.  Good people fail.  Bad people fail.  It does not make the good bad or the bad worse.  It is simply a fact, and when you get to #3, it's not worth the worry.  3)  Get up.  Get over it.  Get going!  Maxwell suggests that there is no reason to pack our failures into our life baggage and carry them with us.  Fix what you can.  Learn from the mistake.  Move on!!!!!  If I hadn't moved to Watertown.  If I hadn't said no thank you and yes please.  If I could ever get a Bundt cake out of the pan.  Thank you Mr. Maxwell.  Thank you readers.  Know you all are loved!