Well, hello there. My name is Morgan Harper-Nichols. I'm an artist and a writer, and this is a space where I share poetry and prose and thoughts that I hope can make a little room for you to slow down and take a few deep breaths as you prepare for whatever lies ahead.

Today's episode is called Laughing Our Way Through Failure and Making the Most of Our Mistakes.

Years ago, I was at an event where I ended up pulling someone's hair. I was wearing this ring that had this sharp edge on it and I got

really close to her and my hair ended up getting stuck in her hair. And I apologized profusely.

I just felt terrible. I was so embarrassed and I was like, how did this even happen happen and every time I saw this person I just

continued to feel embarrassed and I kept thinking wow she's probably thinking about that one time

where I pulled her hair and I just made this massive deal of it in my head because it was a big

deal I don't mean to walk around wearing jewelry that ends up pulling

someone's hair. And after several times seeing this person, it ended up coming up again that

this one random time I had pulled her hair. And to my surprise and also relief, she didn't remember.

She didn't remember it at all. And I sat there realizing

that even though I had made this legitimate mistake and I didn't mean to do that at all and I was so

embarrassed by it, it was not as big in her mind as it was in mine because she didn't even remember it. And I always think

about that story because there are so many times in my life where I don't feel like I have the

permission to move on from a mistake. I don't feel like I have permission to move on from failing at something, no matter how

big or small it is. But that moment was a reminder of just how busy life is, just how many things

happen, and just how much people don't remember my failures as much as I do. Another place where I've experienced a lot of

failure is in my writing. I've been writing online in various different ways for almost a decade.

And there have been quite a few times I've lost count of moments where I've had typos or grammar mistakes in my work.

And I've had plenty of people let me know, hey, Morgan, you wrote the wrong thing or you forgot a period there or you're missing a letter or you're missing a word.

I don't know how many times I've received comments or emails on that.

However, I can't tell you a single time where someone has said,

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