Who’s the guy with the scratched-out face, a.k.a. He Who Must Not Be Named (HWMNBN)?
He’s now My Favorite Mistake (MFM)!
Let me explain.
In New York, circa 1998, I ended a relationship with HWMNBN. It was as toxic as toxic can be, replete with all the ingredients of a telenovela–cheating, lying, betrayal, gaslighting. It was so bad, in fact, that in addition to breaking up with HWMNBN, I felt I needed to break up with NYC and start life anew in a brand new geography, a new and strange city. I chose Los Angeles because it was unfamiliar territory, and it was as far away from NYC as I could go within the USA. Had the Pacific Ocean not existed, I might have gone farther still.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Hollywood sign. I took my very first yoga class ever. A brand new friend named Denise (a.k.a. She Who MUST Be Named) invited me to go with her to a Power Yoga class in Santa Monica, and it was a seminal moment in my life. That singular class changed everything for me–my destiny, my spiritual orientation, my life’s mission.
The point of dragging you through this ready-for-internet drama is to emphasize this: a toxic relationship jettisoned me to L.A. to jump start my acting career and to heal a broken heart. Twelve years later, after having discovered yoga there, I emerged from L.A. as the man I was meant to be in this world. And it is critical that I honor both this outcome and its impetus.
So at this time of the holiday dedicated to thanksgiving, I bow gratefully even to those wretched experiences, now integral threads in my life-tapestry. Were it not for HWMNBN, I would not have experienced the marvels of these past 22 years. And thus, he who had been known as HWMNBN has now officially been renamed My Favorite Mistake (MFM).
Do you have a Favorite Mistake? Something that, in the moment, felt unbearable and even shameful? Because I guarantee that if you did a little connect-the-dots backtracking right now, you would find that this “mistake” eventually led you to something rather terrific: the unfoldment of an auspicious sequence of events that has led you to Now.
It’s a challenge indeed. But in your gratitude contemplation, I dare you to summon forth a treacherous experience and transform it from an HWMNBN to an MFM. And, in the process of this transformation, say a little prayer of gratitude for the contribution this experience has made to your fabulous life.
Gratitude for ALL of you. And yes, for you too, MFM.
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