It is often said and sometimes I think it's true that life is never easy.
Each day we work, we think, we do the best we can, we hope to play and have fun but at night we wish we could redo parts of our days and we seldom congratulate ourselves for the good we did do.
Mercies are new every morning but we forget to pick them up or use them and at night we lay ourselves down to sleep and beg the Lord our sanity to keep.
The struggle for balance is never ending and just when we think we have it, along comes some person or incident to tip the scales.
That's how life is and we just need to accept it and move gently through each day without too much fuss and being kind to ourselves, if we can!
But somewhere in our lives, the balance, the time, people, circumstances, over tiredness or maybe not enough forethought, may force us to make a decision or a set of choices that end up being the wrong one(s).
The consequences are devastating and un-doable and we are left bereft and stunned, at worst we are broken hearted and confused. Unsure where we went wrong and how we can undo the chaos we seem to have created, we then beat ourselves and sometimes, when other people are hurt in the cross fire, we flail ourselves without mercy.
This is called making a mistake.
There are times in our lives when no matter how hard we try, we can never do the right or correct thing and then we don't let ourselves off the hook.
Swinging back and forth on a pendulum of regret and sadness, we look at the past and how we could possibly undo it. Then as the pendulum swings back we wring our hands in despair of our futre and wonder if we can possibly fix the mess that awaits us or how can we sweep away the wrong we perceive we have done.
But wrong is a very misused and harsh word. To be wrong is to be or do the following:
To not conform to fact or truth; to be incorrect or erroneous, contrary to conscience, morality, or law; immoral or wicked, unfair; unjust, unacceptable or undesirable according to social convention.
The aforementioned descriptions make doing wrong sound almost criminal and certainly carry a penalty of shame and ostracism.
The description that I found and which I most associate with doing wrong is - not functioning properly; out of order.
That seems to be the mildest description and the one I can relate to best.
The meaning of mistake is: an error or fault resulting from defective judgment, deficient knowledge, or carelessness.
A misconception or misunderstanding, to understand wrongly; misinterpret: mistook my politeness for friendliness.
I like these descriptions.
We have not done WRONG, we have made a mistake. Due to our lack of knowledge or experience we have stuffed up.
But in the meantime we try to hang ourselves on the rope that is attached to the hook now firmly imbedded in our souls, the hook that is festering and causing more pain.
I have seen some very nasty infections resulting from a person getting a hook caught in their hand or arm. It is very hard to remove a hook from your flesh, once it gets in.
Hooks are not designed to every release their captives, they are a means to an end and that end is death.
Having the hook of wrong doing in our souls brings a slow decay and a lingering death of our self-confidence and wellbeing.
Our day to day mistakes bump the huge and weeping sore inside of us, causing it to grow bigger as it consumes our thinking, taking up all our energies as we try to close off the hurt and guilt that keeps surfacing from this infected hook we have got caught on.
The more we struggle, the more it hurts and we can drive the hook in deeper.
Yes indeed, getting off the hook is no easy feat.
The quickest way I have ever seen a hook removed is to cut it in half and pull each end out separately.
The wound site will still take time to heal and the infection will need tending but once the hook has been removed you can and will heal.
To prevent re infection, realise that we all mistakes, forgive yourself, move on and keeping enjoying your life.
More often than not, doing "wrong" is premeditated.
Mistakes are a part of life as a human being on Earth.

To err is human, to forgive, divine - ALEXANDER POPE

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that prisoner was you!

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4
So stop the struggle and severe those hooks from your life.
Be free to make mistakes.
Love all that is good about yourself, for there is much to be celebrated.
Rome wasn't built in a day and the long life we have ahead of us holds much promise and joy, which of course we will be sharing with all whose paths we cross.
Only you can forgive yourself, others are out of our control no matter how good we are or how hard we try to please.
If we ever need a mantra in these harsh and troubled times, it is:
"I AM OFF THE HOOK."