Not Always Perfect

I am a week behind in my reading of the blogs of others once again and have come across the Photography: 101 prompt of “Moment”.
My friend Karen shared some photos that she had taken of dolphins playing off the bow of a boat she was travelling on. She snapped the photos quickly without having the time to adjust the settings on her camera rendering the photos technically imperfect. But that is okay because the photos still captured the joy that seeing these creatures frolicking in the bow wave created within her. I got to thinking about how we are not always able to be perfect.
So many times on our blogs we write about the things that happen in life. It is rare that we portray ourselves as having flaws or behaving in less than perfect ways.
We don’t usually share photos that we have taken that are imperfect.
We don’t let others in on our little secrets because they might think less of us.

But underneath it all, we are human beings with human frailties.
We get angry.
We get upset.
We say things that we shouldn’t.
(We make a mess on the floor of our craft room that annoys the Garden Gnome 😉 ).
Our lives aren’t perfect and I believe this is a wonderful blessing.
For if our lives were perfect, then we would have nowhere to grow and nothing to strive for.
We wouldn’t learn lessons or develop strength of character.

So in recognising our flaws we become the person that we wish to be.
I once shared a poem that I wrote about Perfection in which I lamented my imperfections and looked forward to my ability to improve. I still hold with that thought.
I am not a perfect photographer (hell no).
I am not a perfect mother (just ask my kids).
I am not a perfect partner (don’t ask the Garden Gnome because he will tell you far too much 😉 ).
I am not a perfect daughter (I get caught up in life and forget to call).
I am not perfect.
I acknowledge my failings and in doing so I create opportunities for improvement.

In those moments of imperfection, there exists potential for growth. And I don’t intend to waste those opportunities.
Seeing those photos that Karen took made me feel a little better about myself. It helped me to realise that we aren’t all perfect and that there are people out there just like me. We don’t always achieve perfection in everything we set out to do.

There are many others in the world just like me who strive to be the best that they can but sometimes fall short of the mark and that’s a good thing because if we always hit the target then we would have nothing to aim for.