Perfection

The word perfection usually is interpreted to mean that someone or something is without flaw. At the same time, we are taught throughout our life to see the flaws and imperfections in ourselves and others, and to strive to be perfect through any means necessary. Thus, creating a never ending cycle of disappointment when the impossible "perfection" is never attained. Some try to overcome their own self-created shortcomings by getting caught up in a variety of things. These, for many, are disguised as things that are necessary for becoming perfect. People bury themselves in their jobs thinking that with more money, or more of their co-workers thinking that they're doing a good job, that happiness and perfection with follow. For others it might be their religion and the idea that if I pass through the open doors every Sunday, I might someday be perfect.
The problem with ideas like this is that they are all outside-in fixes for something that must be inside-out. Perfection must be seen and acknowledged in our lives each day because every moment is perfect. Our bodies are adapting to everything that happens around us in the most perfect way it knows how. Sometimes this may be misinterpreted as negative. For example, when our bodies are invaded by the flu virus, it responds by raising the body temperature, making the body feel aches and tired, and often increasing the mucus production in the sinuses. For years, I wasn't able to see the perfection in this. I saw all these events as something preventing me from being perfect and feeling 100%. My reaction was always to take something to reduce the fever, stop the runny nose, and do my best to act like I felt fine. I would take steps to fix this "problem" that was being taken care of from the inside-out by a fever and rest, and would try the outside-in approach by masking the problem with medication.
Tapping in to our own perfection requires understanding that regardless what is going on around us, we adjust the best we can. Even when things don't happen they way we want them to, or in the time table that we expected, each event is perfection. I often tell the students that are in the P.E. classes that I teach that there is no sense in getting upset about something that someone else has done. We can only control ourselves and the way we react to their decision. Every time I tell them this, I need to take a moment and remind myself the same thing.

Tristan