STRIVING TOWARDS IMPERFECTION—PART TWO

I am learning the possibility of "NOT". Not doing too much. Not trying too hard. Not trying to be the best or have the most. Not trying to care about outcomes.

Some people think that the most important thing in life is to be remembered. But being remembered is as fleeting, over the long run, as everything else. Because, even those people who remember us, remember only as long as they live. When their lives are ended, so is their memory of us. The point is, that even our legacy is temporary.

So why do we try so hard, knowing that whatever accomplishments we achieve—even the great ones eventually will be lost in the records of time.

There is much to be said for being humble, living small, accepting our human frailties, accepting our foibles and living with the acceptance of all our warts. It is so much easier to live like the rocks in the stream, letting time flow over us like the water flows across the rocks.

There is this thing called ego that makes us want to be the biggest, the strongest, most beautiful rock in the stream. Yet, what makes the stream of life so beautiful is the collection of all the rocks together. For individuals, it should be the knowledge of "who we are" that gives us satisfaction. We are people just like our neighbors and our friends and our family members—all of us connected in the stream of life.

Isn’t it self-knowledge that is what really counts? Isn’t it knowledge of who we are that gives us eternal satisfaction? Why is it that we must feel we are the brightest, the shiniest, the best, in order to feel satisfied. As soon as we are polished on one side with everything we learn in this life, then a storm comes along and flips us over exposing our rough underside that has not yet been polished at all. Just when we feel the pride and satisfaction of accomplishment, we are tossed around and shown that all that was really no big deal.

If we are simply satisfied with acceptance, with gaining the knowledge of who we are inside, then when we are flipped over, we don’t feel any different because we are focused within. What we appear like on the outside is no big deal.

Eventually all the rocks in the stream are worn smooth by the flow of the water. As hard as the rock is, it is formed and smoothed by the flow of life. What sense does it make to strive for perfection when we will end up a perfectly formed being anyway?

No matter how much we struggle to shape ourselves into what we think we should be, nature will shape us the way it wants.

Go with the flow. Chill. Enjoy the cool water. Enjoy the ride.