by Sara Morgan
I don’t mean to get too personal here, but I thought it was worth noting that I am not perfect and neither are you. Like I said, it is nothing personal. I am not trying to put either of us down. I am simply trying to travel through the world of imperfection, hoping to come out the other side.
You see, I spent the better part of my life thinking I was perfect, or at least trying to be. I am your typical highly educated and highly neurotic white woman who has recently become a single mother of three young children. At the age of forty, I have already gone through two marriages and more jobs than I care to admit. I have struggled with the idea of how to find happiness and read almost every self-hope book made. Notice I used the word almost, because no one could possibly read them all. There are simply too many out there.
For the past nine months or since the failure of my second marriage, I have been casually dating myself. Rather than curling up in a ball, which is what I want to do every day, I keep washing my hair and forcing myself to go outside. On the weekends, I sometimes go to nice restaurants and sit at the bar. This is usually followed by a movie and a long ride home to my house in the country.
This weekend I spent the better part of my Sunday sitting on an isolated beach reading, “How to sleep alone in a King-size bed”, and I realized something profound. I realized that I am far from perfect and even though I have made many positive changes which I think will ultimately lead me to happiness; I am still far from it.
I think we all tend to think that happiness comes from perfection. I know I thought so. But, I realize now that true happiness comes from the acceptance of non-perfection. It comes from recognizing and truly accepting the fact that I don’t really have a clue. I am just wading through life doing the best I can and trying to make every day the best one possible.
This profound realization, which was really not sudden since I have been “getting it” for the past ten years, is very liberating. It releases me from many of the mental chains I have been dragging around most of my life. The kind of chains that stop me from being spontaneous or living my life to the fullest. I think I am finally getting somewhere.
I hope this piece helps you to realize that you are not perfect either. None of us are. And honestly, who would want to live in a world where everyone was perfect. Think of how boring that would be.
Sara Morgan is a professional web developer and the author of No Limits: How I escaped the clutches of Corporate America to live the self-employed life of my dreams”. You can find out more about Sara and her book at http://www.nolimitsthebook.com.
(Photo:fauxpress/Flickr Creative Commons)
