tooth 🦷 fairy 🧚‍♂️ fail 😢

My daughter has been waiting in eager anticipation for months (years, honestly 😂) to lose her first tooth and experience the wonder of the tooth fairy. 🧚‍♂️ 

Finally, she lost her first one! 🦷🎉  (Thank you to playing hard, a bit of imbalance, and the unforgiving edge of a chair!) 🪑 🤕 

She celebrated, she showed everyone, and she carefully put the tooth in her tooth fairy pillow (handmade by grandma when I was a child 🥰). She even wrote out a thank you note to leave by her bedside.

All seemed well.  

She slept soundly.  😴 

The tooth fairy remembered to pick up the tooth and leave a bit of reward.  

And then, the tooth fairy committed a major fail. 😬  

In her fatigue she became distracted by her next task, set down the baggie with the sweet thank you note and tooth on the dining room table, and left it there in plain sight! 👀 

I was surprised by the puzzled look on my daughter's face the next morning.

Had the tooth fairy under-paid?  Over-paid?  Forgotten to add interest? What's the going rate for baby teeth these days anyway?!?  🤣🤣🤣

Then my daughter held up the baggie.

"She left a dollar, but she also left the tooth.  I wonder why she did that?"

Oh dear.  I struggled to maintain a matching expression. 🤔 

"I don't know...what do you think might have happened?  Is it possible that even tooth fairies make mistakes?"

Her response was what you, me - and every person - needs to hear.

"Of course!  Everyone makes mistakes!  There's no such thing as perfect.  I don't know why that word was invented anyway." 💖💖💖

What a great reminder.

She went on to explain that she and her friends remind each other of this when working and playing together at school.  If someone uses the word "perfect" they change it to something else...

“Great!”  

“Good Effort!”  

“Fantastic!”

...to keep that concept clear - There is no such thing as perfect!

My guess is that you know fully, intellectually, in theory, that there is no such thing as perfect.  

You "know"...

• You can't get everything done.  

• You make mistakes.  

• You say or do the "wrong" thing.  

• You have a drawer or cupboard that isn't well organized.  

• You lost that piece of mail.

• You left the tooth in plain sight. 🤣

And yet your emotions are likely reluctant to accept this reality - especially if you happen to also be a recovering perfectionist.  And you see how much remains to be changed in the world around you.  And you care deeply about having the best impact you can to support others and create a more just, safe, and inclusive world.  And the last thing you want is to hurt or let someone down you care about. And, secretly, you really do believe that if you only try hard enough, you can at least appear to get it all “right".” 😉

More than likely, your mistakes, shortcomings, and quirks draw far more of your focus and attention than your successes, strengths, and endearing qualities.

Thanks to our nervous system's negativity bias, I'm right there with you.  

And so, I pass along the message from my daughter - "Yes, even tooth fairies make mistakes!  There is no such thing as perfect."  

Let's remove that word from our lexicon of expectations of ourselves - and others - with frequent reminders.  

We all make mistakes.  Forever.

No matter how hard we try.

Even, and especially, in the areas that matter most to us.  

It's how we embrace the learning, the humor, and the humanity that allows us to move forward.  

Not perfection.  

How can you discredit the lies of perfectionism from your life?

How can you embrace, or at least tolerate, the messy reality?

What would change if you deeply and fully accepted imperfection as a part of social justice advocacy, whole-hearted living, and changemaking?

(Maybe a fairy garden could help you move through mistakes and challenge perfectionism?  🤣 It certainly helped the tooth fairy fail!  We assume the tooth fairy must have been so tired from her busy night that she was attracted to the new fairy garden we'd constructed.  When she went over to check it out, it was so cozy, she fell asleep and forgot all about the tooth she'd set down!)  

The fairy garden where we believe the tooth fairy fell asleep.  Can't you see the flutter of wings?  🧚‍♂️  (BTW, the tooth fairy is also not much of a green thumb!) 🤣😂🤣😂

You matter.  You make a difference.  I'm so thankful you're here.