Inherently I knew as a kid that perfection wasn’t a viable option for me. But I knew I wanted to be a writer one day. And I took it seriously. I spent a great deal of my playtime drawing and coming up with jingles to build up my portfolio. In fact, one of my favorite lines for a made up commercial was, “Imperfection is beautiful.”

These days, I have to be reminded of that every time I catch a misspelling, grammatical error or other writing faux pas. I’m reminded that none of us are perfect and that our imperfections not only make us unique, they make us beautiful.

Recently, I caught an episode of Oprah’s Master Class with actress Goldie Hawn. She said something about perfection that really resonated with me.

“Even today, I don’t like anything perfect. Again, it’s sort of being caged with a concept, which is like perfect hair or perfect this or a perfect speech or a perfect thing. Living in fear of not being perfect is something that actually can destabilize us and narrow our scope of life experience. The idea that we walk around with the idea of perfection-nothing is perfect.”

Feeling ashamed of not being perfect can haunt us, impede our self-growth and mental health. It’s why I think our bloggers are so courageous in exposing their truth. They help us normalize and accept our own differences. They remind us that we’re all a work-in-progress. This week they’re teaching us this through stories of hope, recovery and healing. Through their words, they show us that you don’t have to be perfect to live a beautiful, meaningful, purposeful life.

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