day 38 . . . the search for perfection
today is my daughter and my first full day in puerto rico. i will have you know, I began my day with an hour yoga practice . . . sticking with my continuous journey for the 40+ days until easter.
anyway, as I was applying meghan’s sunscreen, i noticed an area on her leg that was darker than the rest – in the shape of an oval. a birthmark i hadn’t noticed in 16 years? no, she said. a scar. in fact, she reminded me the time she wrecked on her skim board a few years back, in costa rica. with pride,
actually. she’s always been a bit of a daredevil on any kind of board, whether it be a skim, surf, or skateboard. and she sees her scar as no imperfection, or something to one day be corrected. it is, instead, a momento of her extreme youth.
and she wears it with honor.
made me smile as i recall collecting shells with my mom. while others would search endlessly for that perfect shell - as if formed by something other than nature – we would collect anything but. according to my mom, the shells that are the most beautiful are the ones that have been passionately loved by the sea. and they show for it, with cracks and lines and even jagged edges. the ones, loved to pieces, are the ones we collect.
to this day, neither of my children will take home a perfect shell – even if they accidentally find one. the perfect shell has not loved enough be taken as the prize.
so many of us search for the “perfect.” then regard our own lines, scars, our broken pieces, as some sort of imperfection, instead of the beauty each represents.
i don’t want perfect. i want lived and i want loved. i want to wear the richness of my life, with pride not regret. each line on my face tells a story. and its my story. uniquely. authentically.
and yes, perfectly.
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anyway, as I was applying meghan’s sunscreen, i noticed an area on her leg that was darker than the rest – in the shape of an oval. a birthmark i hadn’t noticed in 16 years? no, she said. a scar. in fact, she reminded me the time she wrecked on her skim board a few years back, in costa rica. with pride,
actually. she’s always been a bit of a daredevil on any kind of board, whether it be a skim, surf, or skateboard. and she sees her scar as no imperfection, or something to one day be corrected. it is, instead, a momento of her extreme youth.
and she wears it with honor.
made me smile as i recall collecting shells with my mom. while others would search endlessly for that perfect shell - as if formed by something other than nature – we would collect anything but. according to my mom, the shells that are the most beautiful are the ones that have been passionately loved by the sea. and they show for it, with cracks and lines and even jagged edges. the ones, loved to pieces, are the ones we collect.
to this day, neither of my children will take home a perfect shell – even if they accidentally find one. the perfect shell has not loved enough be taken as the prize.
so many of us search for the “perfect.” then regard our own lines, scars, our broken pieces, as some sort of imperfection, instead of the beauty each represents.
i don’t want perfect. i want lived and i want loved. i want to wear the richness of my life, with pride not regret. each line on my face tells a story. and its my story. uniquely. authentically.
and yes, perfectly.
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Posted by peg mulqueen at 4/3/2009 5:09 PM 
Categories: 40 days of yoga, discovery
Tags: puerto rico scars as momentos
Categories: 40 days of yoga, discovery
Tags: puerto rico scars as momentos
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