Guest Author - Linda Steele
We are bombarded daily with images of 'perfection' - the perfect body, the perfect face, the perfect relationship, the perfect car, house, job, health, bank balance, family and so on. We are led to believe that once we reach these ideals we will be fulfilled, so we aspire to things outside of ourselves to make us happy.
What is perfection anyway? Dictionary.com defines perfection as “a quality, trait, or feature of the highest degree of excellence”. I say perfection is in the eye of the beholder. What is perfect to one person may be flawed to another. Who says perfect is 'right' and imperfect is 'wrong' anyway? So these images of perfection that are thrust upon us are fantasy realities which can never be achieved.
Things just 'are' - and you can find help and lessons all around you. Look at the nature kingdoms for example. A clover has three leaves. Occasionally a mutant clover comes along with four leaves. Is this imperfect? Or is it lucky?
Imagine a perfect crystal. It would be so clear it would be like glass. It would have no cracks, marks or planes inside... how boring! It is the imperfections that produce the rainbows inside the crystals. These are the things of great beauty.
Let’s move on to the human face. Beauty is easy enough to spot, but despite countless attempts to do very tricky to define. Sometime around 300 B.C., the Greek mathematician Euclid identified the “Golden Proportion,” an ideal face two-thirds as wide as it is tall, with a nose no longer than the distance between the eyes. There is no such thing as the perfect face. A study done with a computer generated face of a woman with the perfect proportions brought comments such as: "She is pretty but definitely not perfect,” “Her face maybe perfect proportion-wise, but I work with girls I think are prettier,” “If I were to pass her on the street, I wouldn’t even give her a second glance.” Mostly faces are asymmetrical and flawed. It is actually in the asymmetry and flaws that people find beauty. Don’t believe your face looks totally different from one side to the other? Take a piece of paper and hold it in the center of your face. Some people will find that your eye brows are mismatched, one often be higher than the other. Eyes will be different shapes. Nose can slant to one side.
Acceptance and healing, like all spiritual growth, begins from within. It starts by looking inward and taking charge and responsibility for your own life and happiness, without expecting something outside of yourself to do it for you. You are who you are... and who you are today is your starting point - with all your perceived flaws and imperfections.
Remember, imperfect flowers make great potpourri, and good-hearted, loving, and funny people come in all shapes, colors and socio-economic backgrounds. What information, healing or love could you be missing out on if judgments are made on fantasy criteria instead of looking within, and following your heart in your life choices? Create your own beauty. Define your own perfection.
