The Inspiration of a Pinterest Fail

Sometimes life doesn't fit the picture in our head. 

Or the picture on Pinterest. 

In fact, there is a whole following for "Pinterest Fail" pictures on social media, 

and they are really, really funny.

Last week, in an almost accidental conversation with my coworker, I found myself fully inspired by her "Pinterest Fail" and she graciously allowed me to write about it here. 

Her son, who was celebrating his 5th birthday, is into the planets and the solar system, so in order to celebrate this, she went to Pinterest for cake inspiration. 

She found this:

Before she showed me her version she told me that the planets were cake pops wrapped in melted white chocolate on a standard chocolate frosted cake. She prefaced that it's clearly impossible to frost a cake without the top crumbling off, and I agreed. She also said that she had trouble with the molding chocolate...

Then she showed me the final version of her cake:

While we howled with laughter at the stark difference of the two cakes and the clear winner of any "Pinterest Fail" contest, something about her cake struck a chord in me and I couldn't stop thinking about it. She sent me the pictures of the cake and I kept looking at it in awe. I was in awe that despite all of the mishaps, she kept going. Every single planet is represented, with color, {I can't get over the detail of Earth...} *almost* every bit of it is frosted, there are stars in the background and it is...well, it is truly terrible. And yet she kept going.

As I thought about it more, I felt in awe of her clear and deep love for her son and her dedication to giving him the best darn birthday cake she could make. 

No matter what. 

This cake represents the tangible reality that life doesn't always go as planned but that doesn't mean it's short on love or passion or effort. All we can ever do is our best for who we love--even if it's not what we pictured it to be.

The next day she sent me a picture of her son with the cake and I got all teary. The unadulterated joy and happiness on his face is the embodiment of that unconditional love that is usually found in the intangible. 

My theory of what I felt in seeing her cake was right all along. 

Our world is a mess. It seems like no matter what we try, Pinterest Fail is the norm.

 But this planet cake reminded me that even if it doesn't look like we planned, or even what we hoped for; if we make it with love and passion it may very well be the best thing we ever do.