Perfection?

It is always so interesting to be on the outside looking in...I know that over the years I have observed friends and family who seem to have it all. I have watched women that I admired so very much and wondered how they pulled off the "Super Mom" - "Super Woman" image with such ease. I sometimes thought that perhaps I wasn't good enough, strong enough, or just able to do enough to be the "perfect" wife, mother, daughter, friend, employee, teacher, or whatever the label was at that particular moment. I longed to find the secret to being happy and content and feeling like I was worthwhile and needed. I know that I am not the only woman to have felt these things and to have wondered if I could possibly ever truly like me and the person that I was.

We live in a society that reaches for perfection - we see the women on sitcoms, those in magazines, others in the news that seem to have it all and know exactly what to do with it! We are brainwashed that if we don't look a certain way, or have a certain job, or wear certain clothes we aren't good enough. At times it can be so overwhelming and we can find ourselves giving up and giving in to self hatred and loathing. WE NEED TO STOP Obsessing and start looking for the good and positive that we do have.

We need to be like the donkey who has fallen into the well. The farmer has no way to get the poor dumb animal out of the deep dark hole and so he decides to bury him. He slowly and methodically shovels dirt into the hole - the donkey doesn't know that the farmer is trying to bury him so he shakes off the dirt and stomps on it as each shovelful falls down the well. Before long the well is full of dirt and the donkey is able to walk right out into the sunshine. We need to take all of the negatives in our lives and stomp them into the ground then step up and find the positives that will lift us out of the black hole of despair and allow us to see just how amazing we truly are!

None of us will ever be perfect in everything but we all can be perfect in something. We all can find the things that we are good at and then learn to excel in the things that we lack by practice and hard work. I am a terrible artist but I have learned over the years that I can draw small pictures that actually look like what I am trying to portray. It didn't come easily and I will never be a Rembrandt, but I can entertain my grandchildren with my little drawings and they don't care that they aren't perfect - they only see that I love them enough to try.

We all need to love ourselves enough to try - just remember that those women who you think are perfect are fighting their own battles and struggling with things we can't even imagine. We all have trials, we all struggle - that is how we learn and grow.

I am grateful for a patient husband who has seen me through some really tough days, who never gives up on me and who is willing to overlook my faults and love me anyway. I am grateful for parents who expect a lot of me and yet love me even when I fall short. I am grateful for my daughters who are strong women and great examples to me of perseverance, unselfishness, and the desire to be the best they can for themselves and their families.

I am finally at a stage in my life when I can truly say that "I like me" - I know that I am not perfect, but I have enough to give so I can be enough.