Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Adventure #3: The Mistake



(Above: We'll get to the subject of seances in a moment.)

Last week I found myself on an unexpected adventure. I didn't blog or tweet about it, but it may have been the most important adventure I'll have all year. I made a mistake. A big, potentially life-altering mistake. I trusted someone I shouldn't have trusted, and I found myself facing some rather terrible consequences. But then something miraculous happened. The universe set me free.

I've never been the kind of person who sees the value in making mistakes. If anything, I've always been a little too cautious. But this experience has taught me an important lesson. And it's not necessarily one I expected to learn. I've discovered that "failure" can be a wonderful thing. I think we learn more about ourselves--and the world--by failing than we do by succeeding. So I'm not afraid of making mistakes anymore. In fact, I plan to make more of them. Because I know that as long as I stay true to myself, I won't go too far wrong.

Maybe this will sound a bit hokey, but I feel like I've finally absorbed the message that I've been hiding in my books. (It's there, in all six of them. You don't even have to look hard to find it.) Never, ever, be anyone but yourself.

So as I continue my year of adventure, I'll make sure I never leave home without the following . . .

Two Eyes (Wide Open)
Duct Tape (Of Course)
A Clever Disguise
An Unquenchable Curiosity
A Smart Phone with GPS (Because I Do Love a Good Map)
An Unshakable Faith in Myself

Maybe it came as a result of my new outlook on life. (Or maybe it was just a spot of good luck.) But something else happened last week. An idea popped into my head. And yep, it's for a new book. I'm pretty excited about it. So excited that I'm going to start writing this morning.

Then, later this evening tomorrow evening, I'm going to embark on Adventure 3.5. All our talk about seances has gotten me thinking. I'm going to see a lecture on the 19th century spiritualist Madame Blavatsky. Medium, mystic, world-traveler, writer, con-artist, and fraud. And probably one of the most fascinating people who ever claimed to speak to the dead. (Read about her here. Warning: The article from The Daily Beast has a bit of foul language. It also happens to have been written by one of my personal heroes.)

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm kind of hoping to pick up a few tips from Madame. Even if my ghost doesn't make an appearance this weekend, there's no reason my guests need to leave without enjoying a good scare. Heehee.

11 comments:

Meredith Sell said...

Sounds interesting. I'm excited to hear more.

Anonymous said...

OMG ANOTHER BOOK! AWESOME! I WISH I LIVED IN NEW YORK AND I WAS YOUR SIDEKICK! MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE A CONTEST AND YOU WOULD WIN " Be the sidekick of Kirsten Miller." Hahaha. I am excited. You should tell us the name of your new book.
Fondly,
Rachel :)

Anonymous said...

What was the mistake?

Zelia said...

Being someone prone to trusting all the wrong people all the time I must confess I got really curious but I feel it's private so I will not ask.

Rachel's sidekick idea is at the same time awesome and so dangerous. The turkish bath thing would freak me out forever. Still not ready to be an adventure girl...

Kitty said...

Life is about making mistakes and learning from it. :3

Anonymous said...

I would love to go on adventures all the time. But my area is boring, thats why I'm gonna live in NY when I grow up

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous:

Your area might be "boring" compared to New York City, but if you expand the definition of "adventure," I'm sure you'll find plenty of things to improve your skills and confidence.

I'm a big believer in self discovery, learning about an area, and confidence building through long bike rides (see the Randonneurs USA website for details [yeah, they are kind of nuts]), but you can also take a class to improve your html composition skills, learn Braille (and maybe transcribe textbooks for people who can't see to read), learn or refine your knitting and crochet techniques by making caps for folks who've had chemotherapy, organize your neighborhood's dog walkers so you can go on group walks in new parks, use your camera skills to document needed sidewalk and street repairs, or rate every espresso stand in the county.

Note: I wouldn't ever make "sidekick" for Kirsten. My fashion sense is worse than non-existent (and no, I'm not going to link to a picture of me wearing gray pinstripe pants and a beige argyle sweater).

Robert in San Diego

Anonymous said...

I desperately want to read about your unplanned adventure!

I REALLY WANT TO READ ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR BOOKS!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Dear Kirsten,

do you think that you could dedicate a blog post to stopping SOPA? Please? Sorry for interrupting the wonders of your writing!

Toodles*** said...

I'm so happy you're back to blogging! I haven't been on in ages, because you're blogging had almost ceased. But today, i came on to see if you'd had any big adventures or news, and i was surprised. In the best way possible. It was amazing reading about the adventures you've had so far, and now I am just itching to hear more. So far, I haven't seen a lot of goodness in failure either, but in some cases I have- but only in small things. oh yes and also i'm trying to think of another name... i made this one when i was about 10 haha... so depending how inspired i get, this may be the post from Toodles***. Anyways, I'm glad you're back. Can't wait to hear more :)

Kristen Kittscher said...

It's always when we wander away from our instincts that the worst happens, isn't it? Three cheers for mistake-making! Three cheers for failure!