life's not perfect

I wrote this entry a year ago, and I’ve just come upon it. It seems to speak my heart today.

Life’s not perfect…not exactly a news flash for those of us who have been “around the block…and back”…, but it does seem to be part of the human psyche to try get life as comfortable as possible. Maybe, though, it is in discomfort in life that, how shall I say it…makes the pearl grow in the oyster…

What about those of us who strive for perfection…in a world where perfection is as alien as pigs flying? I wonder how much of my life has been fettered by my desire to be perfect.

I recently read these words written by Canadian poet/songwriter, Leonard Cohen

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget you perfect offering

There’s a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.”

My sister can no longer “ring the bells” of her life on this earth. She was so focused on the “perfect offering,” that I think she felt she always fell short. I have always felt that I fall short…until my fifties, and now I am trying to wrap my expectations of myself (and the expectations that other people have for me, I for them) in a realistic place around the real truth of the matter. The real truth being that the only person’s opinion that I need to be concerned about is that of God. He wants me to give him all that I have (as paltry as it seems), so that his light can shine through.

Another Canadian poet, Mary Oliver, asks this pointed question:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

I must say, the past few years have been wild…and life, though far from perfect, is much more precious than ever.

keep me remembering,
g