This is my year of embracing or modifying imperfections in my life. Yeah, it’s part of my MAD MAD MOM month, too, but seriously, if at 54 years of age I can’t get past my imperfections, I’d be doomed.
Doomed. Doomed. Doomed.
Doomed like my unicorn horn and my barnacle are – gone forever, leaving me with subtle reminders of where they were. Freedom from those two nit-picky things has made me realize, they were HUGE to me, and no one else really cared about them like I did.
I don’t want to pick away at the things that don’t look perfect for the rest of my life. Like all of the wrinkles, curves, blemishes, and fading colors of my skin as I age. That sh*t is bound to happen. There’s beauty left, though, I just have to embrace the imperfections.
Doomed is such a sad and weird word, isn’t it?
So is imperfections.
But who cares? Shouldn’t we just persevere and keep growing despite what may look like fears and doubts about aging that are lurking in the shadows?
Who’s keeping an eye out to compare me (us) to anything or anyone else as I (we) age?
We all have big hearts, fragile enough to break easily, right? Hearts that bleed for acceptance and love and tenderness for ourselves and from others.
Do we care to sniff around for sympathy or empathy or acceptance? Or are we more interested in the curiosity factor right before our eyes? Does being curious make things easier as we age? I think so.
Should it matter if anyone cares or not about what I (we) think about those other things like our own personal quirks about our imperfections?
I’m just a little bird in the big empty nest forest. I’m discovering life at the top and bottom of what happens in nature as we age. I’m curious to see what happens next.
I’m not a fan of when people say, “Who cares.” That’s BS – we’re humans and we do care, a lot. In fact, we care more, that’s why we say, “Who cares.” We care about our survival. We care about our sanity. We care about how to pay for retirement. We care about the future for our kids and loved ones. We care about fitting in or not. And we care to bloom in our own time, especially as we age. We don’t want to wither and die, we still want to bloom.
When we say, “Who cares”, what we’re really talking about is how we are rationalizing how much we care compared to how much we think others do or don’t care about what we care about. Our perceived imperfections.
Ugh…right…that’s a phase in life for teenagers to learn how to navigate through, not empty nesters…we’ve been there done that.
We care about embracing our imperfections and not letting them hold us back from enjoying this phase of our life. I’m curious enough to make that happen, how about you?
Post Inspiration – Imperfections and #MADMADMOM
PS – What is your favorite way to embrace your imperfections? Do you agree or disagree that social media makes it hard for humans to do, no matter what your age? Which social media platform is the epitome of flaunting the perfect life?
We do care, but getting past the imperfections allows us to care about the things that matter.
You’re a wise man, Dan, I admire your take on life!
It comes with age, Shelley – you’re still a kid 🙂
LOL – you made my day – just a kid!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I don’t pay much attention to the *perfect* people on IG and when it comes to blogging– well, that’s all about embracing the imperfect. As for whether I care in general, I’d say yes I do. But I’ve learned to have boundaries and that there are limits to my caring. It’s always a balancing act when it comes to people.
I admire your ability to embrace your limits. And I enjoy it when you call them out in a testing the waters just out of curiousity kind of way! 😉
I see dealing with imperfections as a case of mind over matter: I don’t mind, and they don’t matter.
I’d have to say Facebook and/or Instagram would be the worst offenders. People actually feel worse after spending time on Facebook. Mary and I are probably going to dump it at some point in the not-so-distant future. Instagram can be bad, but at least you can just focus on the cat pictures.
Yes, I agree with you John, on all of it! 😉 It’s so hard to keep up with the way it messes with your brain – up and down thoughts. I know I feel worse after looking at Facebook enough to question the usefulness if at all. Yikes!
Like I said, Mary and I are getting ready to dump Facebook. I’ll probably cut Twitter down to an absolute minimum, too, just weather, baseball, and people I know.
Way to fine-tune what is important to you and Mary – that’s what counts the most!
I think that getting older is easier when we care less (or don’t care) about other people’s approval of how we look, what we do, etc. That can be easier said than done, especially when it involves close friends or family. Feeling more vulnerable as we age can make that a bigger challenge.
Aging perfectly (!) is…um…impossible (?). Whatever that may be.
I got fed up with Facebook many years and don’t miss it.
Ah, yes, those close friends and family situations are challenging as we age. LOL – we should be considered more perfect with age, like a diamonds under pressure, right? Way to go being free from Facebook! You’re not missing much, that’s for sure.
Diamonds are us 🙂
The older I get, the less I care about what others think about me. Instagram doesn’t affect me, and FB should be removed, shut down for good!
Your spunk at this time in life inspires me! LOL – imagine a world without FB, sounds nice doesn’t it!?!
Hell yes it does, Shelley! I tried FB years ago, it was and still is a crock of you know what. I’ve seen too many people go down for their own ignorance or via others. I don’t want strife in my life! 😎👍🏻
You’re a wise man, John, way to limit the bad influences in your life!
Thanks. All I use in Social Media is WP and IG…
Me too! I do have Facebook too because I manage our pages for work. ;-(
I think social media, mostly Facebook, causes people to be different personas than they would be in real life like if you were sitting having a face-to-face with them They often hide behind a profile picture and spout off at others on news sites and they worry about not being skinny enough, witty enough, or eating at or visiting as many chi-chi places as their counterparts. In that respect Facebook has made us all monsters vying for attention to have people notice us – it makes us look like needy, attention-starved humans. “Look at me and see what I’ve done – don’t you wish you could be like me?!” It might even bring the Green-Eyed Monster as well for some people who covet what the other person flaunts.
I don’t disagree with your assessment of FB. How sad for us humans to stoop so low. ;-(
I am really only on there to follow some nature venues/metroparks around here, the news and a few friends who longer use e-mail.
Well, this makes me smile.😊
Aw, thank you, Laura! I’m glad you stopped by – I need to stop by to see what you’re up to, too! I’ve been thinking about you lately – hope you are doing well!!
Thank you Shelly! I’ve been so busy with traveling for the birth of newest grandchild to home projects that were stalled, waiting for warm days, that my blog life had become a hit and miss.
Reading others blogs has been about all my energy could afford lately but I can always count on yours giving me a smile. 😊💕
Congratulations on the new grandchild! I’ve yet to venture that realm of the world! You certainly have plenty going on – I’d be napping for sure!! Thanks for finding time to stop by – I always enjoy hearing from you!