The other day I sent out an email and inadvertently included a link to the Jehovah’s Witnesses (my initials — JW — ended up creating the link). A minor error but my initial reaction was: oh no people are going to think I am a complete twat. But forthwith I thought — it’s not about me but about having a laugh. It was what I call a perfect mistake.

Not only because I write about religion and spirituality but also because some time ago I put up a hilarious YouTube audio of Stuart Wilde talking about the JWs. I think Stuie would be very amused at my mistake. Many others certainly were in the light of the flurry of emails we received with smiling and laughing emoji’s.

So we turn mistakes into opportunities, or something to ponder on or laugh about. No need to defend such mistakes — if someone calls you a idiot, you smile and say yes sometimes I am a bit daft. It’s hard to be clever if you are not.

There is another aspect to this: aside from mistakes what about disasters that cause us great difficulty? We all have those.

Ultimately such events have to be seen as our need to understand this dimension of restriction – of gravity. Things settle at their lowest place eventually. The only way to go beyond them is to honour them and turn them into opportunities.

Such disasters can be useful because they teach us things. They give the ego, the subconscious mind a shunt. It’s like the pomposity, the pretence of your life is flushed down the toilet and you are sitting there exposed with your pants down. It’s humbling, it’s embarrassing and it’s painful. The wife disappears and has run off with the guy who installed the water heater.

Honouring them doesn’t mean we celebrate them (although we might). It means we acknowledge the disasters and hopefully one day can make light of them. Because this lightness around a situation suggests we have moved on from the angst that it created. A healing has taken place. The water heater guy did you a favour — you moved to a better house and shacked up with Bruce. These things happen.

I must mention that I am not referring to serious traumatic events in one’s life. Those who have experienced such trauma will likely never develop feelings of lightness around particular events. The way it is, is the way it is. That’s not being flippant but realistic about the challenges people face.

In closing, for my next mistake I hope to be promoting the Rastafarians. Opportunities abound.