Friday, April 30, 2010

Perfecting Imperfection


I feel like I could relate to her decision, so much so, so much said that I had been wanting to say. Not that it's necessarily life changing, more along the lines of life tweaking, something small that makes a big difference.
I have a confession.
I have a scrapbook that I haven't started because I'm afraid that the pages won't be perfect. That I have to get better before I start. But how do I get better if I don't start? But what if I start and it's all wrong? What if I look back years from now and think of how crappy my scrapbook looks, picking out all of the flaws?
But what if I never start, and those memories are not recorded?
The issue here is that I need to start, and learn to accept the imperfections. One of the things that I enjoy most it to look back at pictures that were kept in albums. History recorded. The other day I was given an album from my aunt that had a picture of my parents when they were dating.
DATING.
Also, the album contained a picture of my dad's first car, and oh the stories it provoked from my mother about that first car.
A picture of my grandparent's wedding anniversary.
Showers thrown before my own parent's marriage.

Those are so precious to me. They are nowhere close to perfect. And in that, lies the secret. Someone was willing to splay out their imperfect record of day to day life. Of what mattered to them. And what was reflected to me, was the perfection of a imperfect world. A perfect gift. I'm not as concerned about giving future generations a gift, but to keep a record is something that is important to me. I get so much joy and realize so many blessings in being able to look back at the chronicle of my life so far. I don't live in a perfect world, so I should not expect that my pictures need to be edited before they are shared, my words don't need to be publishable before they are written, and my scrapbooking skills definitely do not need to be flawless before I have even started.

1 comment:

Abby said...

You snuck this post by me. Tricky.

Anyways, perfection is something that I need to stop chasing after, too. Easier said than done...

Also, I was trying to imagine your parents during their dating era...and it made me laugh. I can totally picture your dad doing something Jeep-ish and then your mom's reaction. Love it!! :)

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