Imperfection

The Buddhists teach that all of life is imperfection, that to be perfect is strive for something beyond attaining. We are all imperfect beings and it is only when we accept our imperfections that life begins to feel whole, less struggle, less worry and strife.

This is a tough lesson when we have grown up believing that who we are, our imperfect selves are not good enough, nobody has ever specified who we are being measured too and why the yardstick is important.

I am beginning to understand this lesson, but as a true act of self mirroring lessons, I am never quite there, always finding myself lacking in some vital ways and striving ever striving for a place of perfection that I cannot be. It’s both harder to obtain, now that I’m older and easier to accept, this lack of perfection, this willingness to be in like, if not in love with myself, and all my many character defects that make me both charming and real.

There is a simple contrast to life, a need to compare, to a natural order of one against another, the backdrop shaped and nuanced to enhance both or to give subtle sway to one side over another. The problem comes in the choosing, in this need to be right, this desire to possess.

One has an apple but sees an orange and all flavor for the apple is lost, one only longs for and wants the orange. Once the orange is obtained, and depending on how great our need we will most likely obtain the orange, but once we have it, it is now the banana we want, or the plum, the cherry, a perfect pear. Each presenting its virtues, an easy glossy package, its softness, smoothness, the gentle give of the plum, the firm crispness of the apple. Each are both perfectly what we want, displaying exactly the qualities of the fruit we seek, and each is wildly unique both from other types, but as individuals as well.

Accepting imperfection, is not about being less than, it is not about striving for less, or accepting something that is not whole and perfect, it’s about looking around, at ourselves, our homes, our careers, our lives, bodies, ideas and seeing them for the beauty that is possessed in this moment here and now, this is the moment. When we truly accept imperfections we are ready to move forward. If not today then there is another 24 hours waiting for us in the morning and we can try again.