Imperfection

I dropped my bags, pulled open the curtains and saw this jaw-dropping view.  I quickly snapped a picture.  Little did I know that this photo- a view from our room in Santorini –  would go places.   To my home page of my website, my business cards, my internet  logo.

In my excitement to capture the awesomeness of this movie view, I chopped off the top of the arch.  In the perfection of the scene, I created an imperfection.   And as the photo guy said when I went to have it blown up to poster size, “I could touch it up and create a top piece of the arch, but I would leave it alone.  It’s got character.”

And so it is and I love it.

My daughter, Nava, survived a year-long medical crisis.  Miraculously, she came through it all intact; after a tremendous amount of excruciatingly hard work.   She got her life back and has been able to partake in it as before.   A miraculous return of perfection.

By her throat is a small round indentation.  A  tracheostomy tube  left it’s mark. Although it is not as severe as it was eight years ago, it retains it’s presence as a reminder of:

Fragility of life, survival, miracles, blessings, appreciation, gratitude, awesomeness.

When a doctor recommended that the “hole” be covered over with a bit of plastic surgery and therefore nobody would ever be able to tell she had had a tracheotomy, I immediately said no.  She would have no elective surgery after surviving so much horror.   And besides, as Catherine Zeta Jones once said of her trach mark, “I wear it as a badge of courage”.  This is certainly Nava’s badge; and this imperfection  shows  character.

And so it is and I love it.

Can you embrace your imperfections?    Can you still see the beauty beyond?