Born Perfect

All you have to do is look at a newborn baby to understand perfection.  There, in that tiny bundle, usually weighing less than 10 pounds is a perfect being. Everything functions perfectly, without any thought or concern from the baby.  She isn’t thinking about being too short, or too uncoordinated, or worried about what people think of her.  No, she just “is” perfection without regard to anything or anyone. Born perfect.  

This morning I was thinking about that.  Being born perfect.  It is true, I was one of those babies.  I was born perfect, a healthy, robust, bright eyed, perfect baby. Everything about me worked flawlessly without any effort on my part.  I was mesmerized by my own fingers and toes, I giggled and cooed, my body processed and eliminated food, and I developed according to the charts.  I was a perfect little human being.

But then, something happened as I grew. I began to forget my perfection. People in my world started saying “no!” when I explored or pushed the boundaries.  Then, they started telling me how to behave and teaching me their version of right and wrong. I learned about shame, guilt, and consequences. I became attuned to living outwardly focused, fixated on others and what they thought.  Little by little I forgot who I was, and became conditioned to their world and I began to see myself as flawed.  By the time I was an young adult I had entirely forgotten who I really was and had already begun striving to make myself a better person.  The journey of “fixing myself” began.

Today I know that beneath the craziness that was created in my life, lies that perfection.  It is more than just a healthy, perfectly functioning, biological machine.  My perfection is a piece of God on this planet.  A unique expression of the divine. Like a snowflake, there is no other being like me. Or you! And, that divinity wants to be expressed. 

This summer I learned about that.  I reconnected with my perfection and my “enoughness” and saw a bigger picture. A picture of my life without needing to be fixed or changed or better in anyway.  Somehow I was re-awakened to my own magnificence, the perfection at the core of my being.  It had always been there, I had just abandoned it. It was like finding a buried treasure, inside.  It is a glorious feeling!

Looking in the mirror this morning, I saw it again.  As I looked into my eyes, there was that spark of recognition, a connection with that deeper knowing. I saw it and I felt it. It was clear to me that no matter what I looked like or  who I thought I was or wasn’t, that at my core I was perfection. The rest was just a story—a big crazy story. I could buy into the story, or I could remember I was born perfect.  I had the choice. Today I chose love.