The Vinyl Scratch

We often listened to an old vinyl called A Swingin’ Safari (Bert Kaempfert) when we were children. A household overdosing most of the time on classical music, we always enjoyed tapping into a bit of jazz, particularly when Dad came out to the music room and did his funny squatting dance in his red trousers. Anyway, I digress...

The track we adored playing became scratched. You know how the needle gets stuck and it repeats and repeats on itself until somebody gives the record player a gentle kick?

I reckon, almost like our stuck record, I was hitting the same annoying scratch in relationships. And I was stumbling upon the same problem time and time again because I just hadn’t learnt a very important lesson about myself. A gentle kick up the arse was what I needed too, I guess.

I’m the first to admit that it is easy to hit these hiccups and to feel sorry for yourself. But it is only in conquering the hiccups that you will finally learn to tread a new path along the track. Every day I remind the children at school that mistakes are great because they mean you could be on the brink of learning. So do you ignore the crosses next to the sums, or do you figure out where you've gone wrong so that next time you can do better for yourself?

What an entirely different journey I am now living. I am wearing my life like an exquisitely tailored silk dress. It is very Lucy. And it feels beautiful.