Giving Up the Blame Game — And Finding Adventure

(Photos: Courtesy Lauren Young)

I gave up blaming others — or at least tried to — during the month of January.

At times it was not easy, especially when we got locked out of the house. Or when the car battery died. Twice. I once blamed two people at work within a 10-minute span for screwing things up very badly. Naturally, I blame Montezuma for the stomach bug I contracted on the yoga retreat I took in Mexico in late January.

But, overall, ending the blame game was deceptively easy. There were plenty of moments when I found myself searching for someone to point a finger at. Often, I took ownership of it. Other times, I simply let it go. And sometimes the outcome of screw-up/misstep/bad mistake led to something better.

Case in point: We went to Kent, Connecticut for a few days over the Christmas holiday. On Christmas morning, I started making a glorious skillet of Melissa Clark’s shakshuka, a spicy Middle Eastern egg confection. Once the peppers, onions and tomatoes were all stewed together, I went into the fridge for the eggs and realized my significant other and I had not bought any at the supermarket during our pre-Christmas shopping run. It was a holiday morning in a country Connecticut town — every store within the span of at least 10 miles was closed.

But not the local farms.

So instead of instead of blaming myself and my beau for ruining a gorgeous breakfast, we turned the day into an adventure.

Stone Wall Dairy, the first farm we visited, was out of eggs. But I seized the opportunity say hi to a few of the cows and stock up on unpasteurized milk, which is like white gold back in our Brooklyn neighborhood.

The second farm we visited (Longmeadow) was desolate, aside from hundreds of gorgeous chickens who swarmed our car. But the honor-system farm stand had dozens of fresh eggs.

The flock of chickens literally would not let us leave. My boyfriend had to slowly shoo them all away, which — if you know his city-boy ways — is simply hysterical.

We drove away not just with a dozen fresh eggs, but also with some excellent photos and something funny to chirp about for years ago come. I’d say ending the blame game served me well.

Check out part one of Lauren’s 30-Day Challenge here.

Find out how the rest of our participants did:

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2 Responses

  1. Sorry I’m Not Sorry: Learning a New Lesson | Tue Night

    […] Giving Up the Blame Game — And Finding Adventure […]

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  2. Editor’s Note: So How’d Those 30 Days Go? | Tue Night

    […] Young stopped blaming other people — on a […]

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