Perfection is overrated

     On a recent visit to Clearwater, Florida, I engaged in beach combing, one of my favorite seaside activities.  Clearwater is known for having some of the most beautiful beaches in the U.S., and also for being great for shelling.  I'm sure that there are true shellers who comb the beaches at night with a headlamp, in the early hours of the day, or diligently check tidal charts to find the best shells.  Myself, I am not one of those people.  If there are great shells on the beach at 5am, someone else is collecting them because I would be still in bed.  So of course, when looking at the shells that are left on the surf by the time I get there, it's slim picking.  Everyone always looks for those perfect shells.  As I walked along the beach, looking for perfect shells, I started to really pay attention to the imperfect shells and realized that they possess a beauty all their own.  I loved they way some of them looked partially carved out, so that you can see the inner spiral chambers.  What eventually happened is that I stopped looking for perfect shells and started looking for the not-so- perfect ones.  Conveniently enough, many of them had ready holes holes perfect for wire-wrapping!  I began to see the beginning of my own souvenir shell necklace.
 I think we can all use this kind of reminder that sometimes, perfection is not the best thing in the world.  I am not perfect, my house is not perfect, my kids aren't perfect, and I'm OK with that.  Furthermore, nothing I make is perfect, and that's OK too.  It was made by a person, not a machine.  obsession with being perfect can result in severe psychological issues (for more on this, see the movie Black Swan).  So let's stop worrying about it so much.  I don't know about anyone else, but I don't feel totally comfortable going to some one's house when it's too neat.  Nothing is out of place and it looks like a museum.  Creepy!  So just leave that  basket of unfolded laundry where it is. Perfection is overrated.