It’s just funny the places you find wisdom sometimes… Like on the front of my bottle of facewash.
Kind of ironic, really, that I would find this quote on the front of a product that's supposed to keep my face looking presentable. Especially when lately about the only thing that will help my blemishes is a brown paper bag (think Charlie Brown). I don't think it's the product's fault, but I've had lots of brown paper bag days lately. And so every time I go to wash my face, it's a little annoying being reminded to not take my appearance so seriously and I hate my facewash a little bit for not letting me have a pity party.
But then I read it again.
It’s become one of my favorite quotes:
If skin were perfect then you wouldn’t be real and you are more than real, you are one of a kind. There will never be another you.
The realization of being more than real and being one-of-a-kind starts, I think, with the realization that we are more than perfect. More than perfect, not less.
Perfection is engrained in our thinking as the goal, the pinnacle, the image we should all reflect. We wind up spending so much of our lives spinning wheels, trying to get somewhere we can never go. This is especially frustrating to hopeless type-A personalities such as me.
But perfect isn’t real.
And we are more than real.
Living an authentic life is hard. It isn’t easy to love me when I’m not perfect, when I don’t live up to my own expectations. And I don’t think I’m the only one who struggles with that.
Life isn’t about looking good and having it all together. Life is about living. About experiencing all the moments we encounter – good and bad – and letting them continue to shape us into more of who we are meant to be.
Perfection is a constant state of existence. It can’t be changed, or else it ceases to be perfect.
I don’t want to stay the same as I am. I want to keep moving forward, to keep learning more about myself and the world around me.
I am not perfect.
I am real.
And I want to live my life being the unique me I was created to be.
