Love your broken, imperfect, beautiful self... It's through the cracks that the light shines through.
I'm not sure why humanity ever thought that we, as humans, were ever made to strive for perfection. I'm not even sure why someone came up with the word "perfect". Nobody can ever, or will ever be perfect, and even if we could attain perfection, would we really want to spend that much time and energy on trying to be perfect? How frustrating and stressful would that be? My daughter used to have a shirt that said "Perfect is Boring", and I agree. If we were all perfect and everything we did was perfect, what fun would that be? We would be like robots... no uniqueness, no quirkiness, no personality, no fun.
So that being said, thank goodness we're not perfect! Thank goodness we were made to learn, grow, make mistakes, try again, make more mistakes, have some successes, have some failures, grow stronger, gain some wisdom, and move on to the next challenge. It's when we realize that this is what life is really about that we can let go of perfection and trying to control or manipulate everything into how we think it should be, including ourselves, and begin looking at life as one big exciting adventure... the good and the bad. Also, as we all know, it's through these challenges that, not only do we become stronger, but we become more humble and teachable, and that's when our true spirit begins to shine through... and what is more beautiful than that?
Honestly, aren't the people that we love the most the ones that are confident and happy as their true, messy, this is me, authentic selves? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to be that way too? What if we woke up tomorrow and said, "I wonder what adventure awaits me today?", and then went about the day doing our best, acknowledging the wins, letting go of the losses, and being grateful for second chances, all the while loving who we are and the life that is put in front of us. I was listening to another Martha Beck Podcast today called The Grace of F -ing up and in it she talks about how when we give up on perfection, we relax and movement can begin... and that's when Grace steps in, and we begin to flow. So maybe instead of being ashamed of our broken, imperfect lives, we should look at it as a natural part of life and a chance to let Grace come in and teach us something.... something that we would never learn if our only goal in life was perfection.
In the end, the sooner we realize life isn't about being perfect, but experiencing it for all it is, the sooner we will recognize that it's through our bumps, bruises, and scars that the light shines through, and it's this light that others will see, love, and be drawn to... including ourselves.
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