(Photo Credit: Flickr)
”Let someone love you just the way you are – as flawed as you might be, as unattractive as you might sometimes feel, and as unaccomplished as you think you are. To believe that you must hide all the parts that are broken, out of fear that someone else is incapable of loving what is less than perfect, is to believe that sunlight is incapable of entering a broken window and illuminating a dark room.” Marc Hack
We all have our moments of doubts in life, times when we believe we could have done better. Times when we feel less beautiful, less talented, or just plain stupid. I felt like that yesterday when my laptop slipped through my laps and fell to the floor. Silly me, I didn’t have any backup files, and to make things worse, I have several work files on it as well. I’m not looking forward to work on Monday but I guess we all make mistakes, the only problem is, some mistakes are simply avoidable.
My laptop is now working fine, I was able to repair it but in the process, it wiped off years of hard work. More than twenty manuscripts are gone, five of them mine, two short stories kaput! Files upon files!! I was mad with myself, but I guess I would have to start all over again, just the thought of putting the pieces together is daunting. However, if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s admitting I’m wrong and making amends.
When I saw the quote above, it spoke to me. And if there’s anyone reading this and feeling like I do, don’t beat yourself up too much. Just pick up the pieces and deal with it.
I hope you’ll have a wonderful weekend, I intend to! 🙂
Much love. Always. 🙂
Look inside and see if the Universe is attempting to tell you anything? Perhaps a new direction or letting go of attachments that holding you back… Hugs, Barbara
I think you’re right. Apart from the work of others that I lost, which I could retrieve if I look through my email archives, I didn’t really have a great sense of loss. Just the fact that I have to start something new, afresh.
I wish you good luck in the process. Hugs, Barbara
Thanks Barbara, I appreciate your kindness!
Oh no, Seyi. I’m so sorry you lost stories! xo
Thanks Luanne, at least I didn’t loss the ability to write, that would have been devastating! Appreciate your kindness.
What a positive view of the experience! You’re always an inspiration, my dear!
Oh thank you Luanne! You have a way of making people feel good! 🙂
I’m sorry you lost so much Seyi 😦 Is there no way at all of recovering anything? I have a device that allows you to take the hard drive out of a machine and plug it into another via the USB. It’s how I managed to save over 25,000 photos. I can dig it out and let you know what it is called if you wish.
Thank you so much Alastair. I have some stories emailed to me but my laptop contained over thousands
of files, pictures, official documents and stuff. I’m a very careful woman, but my weakness is procrastination. I keep telling myself my laptop has never crashed and I would always backup one day. I would appreciate your offer though, even though I doubt it would help me because in the recovery process, the hard drive must have been wiped clean. Nevertheless, I’m dying to know if it would work.
I wait for word from you my friend! Thanks a million!
Rather than try to explain, I thought I would give you the link from Amazon. It’s not too badly priced at £22.99
It’s here
Thanks so much Al, I think it would be good for me. I’ll be ordering it asap. Hope your weekend has been great, my warm regards to your lovely family!!
As I say, it saved my tens of thousands of photos. And so much more. All the poems I wrote, the book I am writing and everything else. I now have them in two places. Some are in three.
I wish I’d seen this ages ago, I would have been spared this heartache. Thank you so much Al. I owe you big time!!! 🙂 🙂
It might be worth picking up an external hard drive as well. You can get a Terrabyte one for about £70
Oh Sandra I am so sorry. The above quote did touch me because I could relate. I have lost lot of my writings. I print all my poems and stories. I have them on a external hard drive and a flash drive. I even email them to myself. But still I blunder. Yesterday I lost a poem that I was working on it was really good. I thought. I had it on my tablet and was going to write it on paper to work on it. I was in a waiting room and it was ackward so I closed it. I must of hit delete because when I went back to work on it, it was gone. I didn’t email it to myself like I usually do. Technology makes things easier but it still has its flaws. Don’t beat yourself up over it too bad. Hopefully some of those thoughts will come back better. Go get yourself a external hard drive and remember to back your computer up. I need to do mine now. Good luck and sending hugs your way.
Thank you so much for your kindness Kim. It means so much to me. I’m sorry about your poem, I’m certain you would find the muse to write an exact replica or better. I used to email some of my work to myself but I got cocky, I’ve never lost any work before, at least, not in this magnitude. I’m going out in a bit now and would buy some USB, an external hard drive, the whole works. I’ve learnt my lesson.
Thanks again Kim!
This reminds of the amazing Rainer Maria Rilke quote “Let everything happen to you, beauty & terror, just keep going, no feeling is final”
Good luck to you. But I have a feeling all will be well…. 🙂
You’re right Tahira, no feeling is final! I agree with you again, all will be well. Your kindness is appreciated my friend! 🙂
“Congratulate yourself as a good beginner. Feel proud of God for choosing you to begin the work at hand. Accept the work freely and get started. Be grateful.”
http://kmihran.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/mihran-kalaydjian-mino-performing-to-you-alone-piano/
Thank you so much Mihrank, I absolutely believe in starting well and learning from this. Your kindness is deeply appreciated!
This may be a test from somewhere to allow you to prove your strength of recovery. I wish you the very best in writing something overwhelmingly stronger than the original.
Maybe it is Ronnie, I hope the files I lost won’t cost me my job though! 🙂 The organisation I work for depend on me to be perfect, and I was, till now! My own writings could easily be replaced, time is the only requirement I need.
Thanks so much for your comforting words, I’m grateful!
This happens to the best of us at one time or the other, we’re fallible Seyi, that’s why we’re called humans. You will write better stories, I believe in you! Best of luck!!
🙂 🙂
That’s so mighty kind of you Christy, I agree with your assertion, the fallibility of man is accepted, it’s a known fact. I feel much better now that I know that you trust me to write other stories! Thank you!
You’re welcome dear. No one is perfect and this would make you to be on your guard next time!
Take care Seyi!
It definitely will. Thanks again Christy.
I used to backup the backup to the backup in fear of losing my writing. Now, not so much. I’ve also lost things in my life thinking the world would and should end for me. But it didn’t and then I smiled that I have one less thing to worry over. Good luck on your recovery effort, Sandra. You always make me think.
You make me laugh Dannie. I guess I’ll borrow a leaf from you and do backups of backups, that’s been careful, which I’d obviously taken for granted! Well, lesson learnt. You also make me think too! 🙂 I would not work faster or kill myself over files, I’ll just take one day at a time. Like you said, the world would not end because of that.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend my friend!
Oh Seyi, my dear friend, I am so, so sorry for this, what a horrible thing to happen. Last year my daughter’s laptop died before she had time to back up her most important files and she lost everything as the technician was unable to redeem the hard drive. She was devastated. My laptop now is on the blink, several times in the past week I keep losing my screen but it recovers slowly. So if I disappear for a while you’ll know why! But I do back up now after what my daughter went through on an external hard drive. You have such a wonderful positive attitude to life, you are inspiring. I do hope you will be able to work your way through your work to replace it but until then know that we here are by your side. I hope you can relax this weekend and not worry too much about Monday…but I know it won’t be easy. So I’ll send lots of love and hugs which I hope helps in some small way…bless you dear Seyi… ❤
I appreciate your kindness Sherri, I was stunned at first, and thought I would be able to save all my files, until after the recovery process and I found out that it wasn’t the case. I’m so sorry about your daughter, I hope she’s been able to create some or most of the files, it’s not a pleasant experience. Please try and back up any important files before your laptop goes on a sabbatical :). You could also service it and I do hope you won’t have any course to disappear my friend, you’re much too important to us.
Monday would take care of itself! 🙂 I’m certain your love and hugs would help me get through the coming week, and I wish you a peaceful and productive week ahead!
Much love to you my friend.
Ahh..bless you Seyi. You are so kind and thoughtful. I am thinking of you today and hope that all this will soon be sorted out for you..and yes, I heed your wise words. Here’s to that peaceful and productive week for us both 🙂 Much love and peace to you too dear friend.
Hey Sherri, thanks so much for your kindness. Just got home a while ago, and everything went as a breeze, it was tough, but I’ve accepted responsibility and I guess that lessened the blow a bit. I’ve began work on other people’s projects that I messed up, will work slowly on my manuscripts early next year. It just means I won’t be able to release any books for now! 🙂 But the sun shone briefly today which gave me hope. Take care my friend, will visit your site soon. I sincerely appreciate your love my friend!
Love and blessings to you! 🙂
And may the sun continue to shine on us both. Keep smiling my lovely friend, love and blessings back to you for a good week ahead, one step at a time… 🙂 ❤
Amen, thanks so much my friend. The sun has been faithful in her shinning. Hope the week has been great to you so far.
Love and hugs. 🙂
I am SO sorry for the great loss — *special* people, like you, are able to overcome, move on and do even better. ( bummer 😦 )
Thanks Bonnie, it was a temporary setback, I’ve learnt a lot from it. I’m grateful for your kindness!
You did it again, Young Lady, post a piece that with your experience you have still managed to encourage. I have a philosophy that is – “I don’t make mistakes, I only have learning experiences.”
And so. Seyi dear, sometimes with these kinds of learning experience all you can do is laugh at it.
Hard as that may sound to do, It does help. Blessings and Aloha – pjs.
Thanks Paul, I’ve actually taken that advise, mopping about would only raise my blood pressure. I’ll salvage whatever I could and move on. I’ve learnt a lot from this. I’m grateful for your kindness my friend!
Much love.
Wow, Seyi, you are so kind to be thinking of encouraging others so soon after having experienced the loss of so many files. I admire your strength and your generosity. My heart goes out to you, and I’m so very sorry this happened. My husband is constantly reminding me to have my stuff backed-up. He’s the reason I have anything safe at all. The one thing you can’t lose is all the development of your writing skills. Each time we finish a manuscript we’re a better writer than when we started it. Hugs.
Blessings of peace for Monday ~ Wendy ❀
Thank you so much for your love and care Wendy, it goes a long way. My husband had repeatedly advised me to back up my files and I always said I would, I wish I’d not procrastinated but that’s history now. I’ve learnt my lesson. I agree with you on the development of my writing skills, that is something I’m thankful to God for not losing.
I hope your Nanowrimo is going on fine, your prayers would help me through Monday and the rest of this week. Wishing you lots of love from a grateful heart.
Have prayed and will continue. xo It blesses my peace when I know someone is putting one in for me. A praying friend is the best kind. ❀
Thanks Wendy, I felt your prayers, it gave me peace and a clear head which is important in restoration! God bless you my friend. A praying friend is the best kind, I agree!!
Much love to you my friend. 🙂
It is terrible to lose so much work and it sounds you lost a lot. We had a server crash and lost loads too. I got my own external drive now and put on it stuff I need to keep. Still I need to go back to get a diary form my granddad which I copied and translated. I start again too on that. We do learn from those experiences.
Wishing you a good week Seyi with your wonderful attitude! Much love Ute
Hey Ute, thanks for popping by. Today has been slightly challenging but I’ve began to deal with my mistakes albeit slowly. Things like this makes one tighten up. I’m sorry you went through this too but like you said, we learn from our mistakes. I hope your day has been great. Appreciate your kindness and wishing you a blessed week my friend!
Much love. 🙂
I’m so sorry you lost your work. Being dependent on computers doesn’t always make life easier. My computer has been ill for months, and I was scared I was going to lose my files as well. I hope you have a good Monday anyway.
Thank you so much Anita, Ten years ago, I rarely depend on my laptop but now, it holds everything. I’ve started the gruelling process of backing up all my stuffs. Thanks for stopping by. It’s been a while though, how are you? Hope to stop by yours soon!
Cheers.
Oh, my goodness. that’s terrible ! ! I can relate ! Oh, my. Anyway, good luck seyisandra !
Thanks my friend. I was a hard lesson but I’m coping. Appreciate your visit and thanks again!
Sorry for your loss 😦 chin up and keep fighting ! God bless !
Thanks Alexis, I’m really good now, taking one day at a time!
Blessings.
Laptop hard drives are the quickest to go, in my experience—even if on a desktop, the important stuff MUST be backed up (and preferably more than one).
Sorry to hear you lose so much work.
I’ve learnt my lesson now. I’m even going to back up all the stuff on my website, who knows, WordPress could crash too!
Wow! I hear you. You know that peace within that needs no explanation.
Thanks Kendra, I draw that from God.
Reblogged this on Kendra Turner- Writer and commented:
This was inspiring from another perspective.
I’m glad you think so, thanks Kendra.
Oh no, that is really sad, I feel bad for you but also impressed that you are putting it aside and not dwelling overly on what has happened. You really are an inspiration my friend.
Thanks for that Ste J. It wasn’t easy but I’m slowly working through the pile, and taking my time too. Glad to see you here!
Much love.
I’m sorry you lost so much work 😦 You have reminded me though that I must back up my laptop. I’ll go do it now…
Please do, it’s better to be safe than sorry!
http://thewolfhowlsatnight.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/sex-binge/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=143&relatedposts_position=1
I checked it out, awesome!
I hesitated about clicking Like… then I slapped my forehead and said: Ya dope! It doesn’t mean you like her losing the files, it means you love her tremendous fortitude in shaking off misfortune and carrying on with a brave smile on her face, and setting a very powerful example for us all.
And that, my dear Seyi, is the truth. So sorry about the accident. I lost a lot of work in a computer crash once myself, so I feel your pain. Hang in there, and thanks for sharing– a very important lesson, yes, for all of us. Merry Christmas, and may God bless you abundantly in the coming year!! : )
Thanks so much Mark, it’s all right, life is about learning lessons, and this kind of things makes it more interesting in a way. Even in pain, there’s still that element of unpredictability that makes life fun (though we may not see it as such at that point in time)
I wish you a fantastic year filled with love, laughter, and prosperity my friend. Also, my sincere apologies for just replying your comment. I appreciate your visit my friend!
Love and blessings to you. 🙂