It’s inevitable—there will be times when you open your mouth and out will pop something you recognize an instant later as something inappropriate.  (“Hmmm – where did that come from, it’s not what I meant to say,” or worse, ”that came out terrible.”)   I recently had lunch with a friend who had just shared how she’s in the Alchohol Anonymous program and as they proceeded to share other wonderful positive steps they’re taking in their life, I raised my water glass to toast them and said, ”I hadn’t known of your achievements beforehand or I could have been toasting you with champagne.”  (Huh?  Did I say that?)

Then there were the two times I asked my dear friend how her parents are, when she had already told me on two separate occasions that her mother had already passed. 

Sometimes we just have foot in mouth disease, no matter how temporary it is, and we have to acknowledge our mistakes aloud.  In the first case I just stammered, “well, maybe I could have toasted you with sparkling cider,” but even that seemed a little awkward.  

(more…)

Recently I was at the movie theater and afterwards went to the restroom. I walked into a bathroom stall and soon after I heard someone enter the stall next to me. She said, “Hi Laurie! It’s Patricia.” I was surprised someone had spotted me and replied aloud, “Oh, hello…which Patricia is this?” She replied, “Um-huh. Yeah, I can be there by 10:00.” I realized, sheepishly, that Patricia?whoever she was?was on the phone with someone else and wasn’t talking to me at all. Needless to say I scurried out of the restroom in case I was spotted as the woman talking to the wall.

My husband and I had a good laugh at this. But actually it was a little lesson in not making it mean anything more me than the fact that I’d made a silly, honest mistake and it was indeed a coincidental happenstance with our similar names. Even so, there are many things I’ve done where I’ve felt higher levels of my own foolish behavior. Yet that’s one of the many positives about aging, that these kinds of things begin to matter far less.

If you catch yourself doing something goofy, how do you regard it? Do you say, “that was dumb of me,” or do you cut yourself some slack?