Once on a trip to Universal Studios in Florida, I found myself with an enthusiastic group of friends whose love for roller coasters knew no bounds. I’m not a fan of amusement parks but this was one of those ‘do it for the plot’ type of adventures. Despite the exhilaration of being on several roller coasters, my stomach threatened to heave at every turn and my head was just done in. I decided the only reward to quell my discontent would be a frozen margarita from Fat Tuesday. As I took my first sip on that boardwalk, exhausted by what should have been a fun day of “amusement,” I thought, I’ll never do that to myself ever again (I’d also been to Disneyland the day before).

Life lately has felt like that series of roller coaster rides—one after another, after another! When I left you last in August, I had my websites crash (thankfully with minimal data loss), which took about a month to fix. It also meant that I would have to think differently about how to structure and then show my ongoing work. So, what had intended to only be a month break turned into two because life kept life-ing…

As I was catching my breath, somewhere in between, I got to thinking about failure. What constitutes failure? What purpose does it serve? And then what happens after? The definition of failure is a lack of success. So I suppose we can start from there and ask what does one consider success and is a lack of success always a failure? Maya Angelou wrote, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” This for me has been one of the best ways to define success for myself.

Then the phrase Museum of Failures ¹came to my awareness. Do we all have one? And is it a place where we house our perceived failures whatever those may be? The more I think about it, the more I believe failure to be necessary. It is how we learn, pivot and innovate. Perhaps I should dedicate one to my culinary experiments, although many have “failed” I can wholeheartedly say I had fun working on them — ergo success!