“A beautiful thing is never perfect.” -Proverb

The vintage couch pillows that don’t even slightly match. The homemade scarf that’s a little too long and yet just the right size. The worn T-shirt that looks like trash but bears too much nostalgia to toss. The hand-made card depicting a child’s version of a happy family–not even slightly realistic and yet precise in all the right ways.

Imperfect beauty surrounds us, and without realizing it, we also own it. With our diverse colors, shapes, sizes, and smiles; in our varying tastes, skills, perceptions, and quirks.

All those little things that make us completely different despite our universal sameness endow us with a beauty we’d never choose to lose if only we could recognize it. That seems to be the hard part: realizing that because the paintings of our lives are a few strokes away from perfect we are so undeniably beautiful.

The things we see as flaws are often just a reminder we are whole and wholly unique.

If you choose to do something to improve yourself today, which in itself is a positive thing, remember: you have a lot less to change than you think.

photo by linh.ngan