"If at first you don't succeed, destroy any evidence that you tried." -Unknown

Everybody has a bucket list.  They usually include things like traveling to an interesting destination, sky diving, singing in front of a large audience, or meeting a famous person.  Sure, those are nice, but today? I completed a biggie on my bucket list.  Making homemade fortune cookies.  Seriously.  It's on there. I have always wanted to make them.  Fortune cookies are this incredible treasure.  If you invite me for chinese food at a restaurant, you had better call ahead and ensure that they have fortune cookies because if they don't, I probably wont enter.  Preferably, they will have a basket in which you can grab extras and become extra fortunate and not be the cheap ones who leave one per every person at your table along with the check.  I like to be extra fortunate, what can I say? 

So, anyways, back to the bucket list.  When my friend, Jill, invited me to come and help her make fortune cookies for a surprise party she was throwing with an Asian cuisine, I naturally accepted.  She had put her boyfriend and his friend in charge of writing the fortunes.  Most of the fortunes weren't actually fortunes but it's better than if I were in charge, because I would have just put "You will be rich." on every single one.   Then it would come true, right?  Right... Amongst the fortunes was the quote, "If at first you don't succeed, destroy any evidence that you tried."  I didn't even have to break open that fortune to make it a reality.  You see, this is the final product:



You may be thinking, oh wow, that is really impressive.  And okay, it looks good.  We did a celebratory dance at the outcome of our project, but allow me to teach you some math.  What is 2 times 20?  Did you answer 40? Wrong! The answer is 24.  Our recipe was doubled and should have yielded 40 cookies, but in the midst of learning the art of fortune cookie-ing, a great mass was thrown away.  24 were made in total.  The first one was a success.  It was put in the skillet and cooked like so:



Then you had to quickly stick in the fortune, fold and pinch it on the top, rest it on the lid of a glass to make that famous crease on the bottom and say a quick prayer that it didn't crack.  There were a lot of failed attempts.  But have you ever seen a blog where they showed off their burnt cookies or collapsed cake?  I wasn't about to photograph the mountain of fortune cookie scraps that had accumulated in our adventure. 

Apart from the grand event of completing a bucket list item, today was significant as it allowed for reflection.  Each day, when it comes to an end we are left with our reality. We are left with what we have accomplished or attempted and failed.  I hope that we all have dreams, hopes and desires and that we are filling our days pursuing them with all that we are.  We may have to throw out the scraps and the oopsies sometimes, we may have to stop and wonder if it can even be acheived, but the end result is always worth it.  The pursuit of dreams brings us to a greater understanding of our potential.  If we don't try, we may never know what we are truly capable of. 

"So if you find life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust Him. He knows what He’s doing, and He’ll keep on doing it." 1 Peter 4:19