Imperfection

I was reading today's selection from "The Tiny Buddha" and it was about "Tiny Flaws". It was a rather optimistic piece about each of us wanting to improve ourselves which is true, but that there is so much that is good and great about ourselves that we have a lot less to change than we think. I really like that.

One of the things I learned in Korea was that the huge inventory that I kept in my head of all of my mistakes weren't really mistakes at all. They were necessary lessons I needed to learn on the way of being who I am today. It was an amazing discovery. I think it is part of our Christian Heritage (no offense to Christian readers) that each of us are taught how imperfect each of us are. It was a wonderful revelation to learn that we are not centers of sin and mistakes. We do things right. I did things right and that even the egotistical stages that I went through were necessary so that I could learn what I needed to learn to be me.

Each of the qualities that we have, we learned from lessons in life. That does not mean we don't change from experiencing those events or going through those interactions from people; but it does mean we don't have to cringe from the ugliness of some sort of sin. It is the beauty of life that washes over us each and every day. Each of us may have universals, but we are also unique. That is the beauty of this life. That is the miracle of existence.

There is a quote on the site of "The Little Buddha": "The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart." -Thich Nhat Hanh

Imperfection for me was putting all sorts of rules on myself because I did not think very much of my self-worth. I now know it is not true. There is nothing wrong with me and I have lots of self-worth and don't need the levels of self-imposed perfection. I am even going to mix my metaphors here. The cage door of my soul is open as well as my heart and I am walking out. If I was to look at the door of the cage I would have seen that there never was a lock there in the first place.