Sometimes weeks have themes for me. Last week the word “perfect” kept coming up. In this poem, called Verburg, author James Broughton writes:

and this is it.
this is really it
this is all there is.
and it’s perfect as it is.

What happens when we think of “this” as perfect as it is? 

In Adventures in Seeing last week, we focused on the wonders and miracles we can experience every day. One participant spoke of the small wonders that are found in the details – like the water drops on leaves after the rain or yellow flowers growing in the cracks of the concrete like the image above. Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Small Wonder, writes:

Maybe life doesn’t get any better than this, or any worse, and what we get is just what we’re willing to find: small wonders, where they grow.

When we’re only willing to find the imperfections – in ourselves or others or in our days – then that is what we will find. What if we were to focus on the perfection that is already there – the small wonders – instead?

This is a different perspective on perfection – seeing the perfection in the imperfection.

It’s not about not having any faults or imperfections. It’s not saying that we can’t strive to be better. It’s about appreciating things and people and ourselves as we are in this moment. Aren’t we all just doing the best we can?

Finally, from the book, A Year with Rilke:(paid link).

A rose by itself is every rose. And this one is irreplaceable, perfect, one sufficient word in the context of all things. Without what we see in her, how can we speak our hopes or endure a tender moment in the winds of departure?

Perfect – one sufficient word for a rose, and for you. Can you see it?