Personal thought of the month February 2011: Beautiful Imperfections.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geishaboy500/

In many different ways, society puts pressure on all of us to be perfect -- to be the best of the best, the end product. We are urged to have a perfect body, to be top dog at whatever job we happen to do for living, as if the  the point of life is to be an instantaneous success. But if that were the case, why were we not born knowing everything we needed to know to ensure that we were "a success" in the first place? Why were we not born with a degree in our hand, or with that perfect job to walk into the day after delivery? why? Because we needed to learn; we accept this - which is why we build schools for our children to go to. We accept this for our children - and then the minute we hit puberty the goal somehow gradually shifts from being to learn, to perfection. To have the perfect body and go out with the perfect guy/girl and achieve the perfect exam results. Suddenly, falls, failure and mistakes aren't much of an option, and the pressure is on to be the finished article. But hang on a minute -. I don't want to be "finished". Who wants to be finished?  I want to keep learning, and growing and discovering this beautiful world God gave us with fresh eyes. Isn't that the joy of life? Isn't that the most precious goal? Some folks may not agree with me, and  that's ok cos we all have our take on life - but if we do want to keep on discovering  life then we kinda have to be okay with learning from it- and that means not beating ourselves when we make mistakes, or cringing when we're faced with our own 'imperfections.' in the mirror. Why not be grateful for them instead? Personally, I'm beginning to appreciate importance of embracing the imperfections of life, because there's a BEAUTIFUL gift in every one of them. 


written and posted by Nadia O'Connell