Aging with Grace

The problem is not that we are not perfect, it’s that we think that perfect exists.

Author Unknown

I did not inherit my Mother’s skill for flower arranging. The problem, I believe, is I just don’t know when to stop. I keep moving the bedraggled flowers around until they are bent over and wilted, begging me to put them out of their misery. In searching for the perfect flower arrangement, I destroy what was good. Even now, when I pass by the flowers, sitting in a pitcher on the sideboard in the dining room, I reach out to move them this way or that.

I am convinced the flower arranging analogy bleeds over to other areas of my life. There are times when I overlook what is good in search of the elusive perfect. The Oxford Dictionary defines perfectionist as a person who refuses to accept any standard short of perfection. In Psychology, perfectionism is typically viewed as a positive trait. The problem becomes evident with the realization that perfect usually doesn’t exist.

Maybe, being satisfied with the status quo in our lives isn’t always such a bad idea. The expression, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater” is another one of those sensible things my Grandmother would say. In other words, “Don’t eliminate something good when trying to get rid of what is undesirable”.