Image by TarynMarie via Flickr
The Perfect Cup
it is time for me
to see the flaws of myself
and stop being alarmed.
it is time for me
to halt my drive for perfection
and to accept my blemishes.
it is time for me to receive
slowly evolving growth
the kind that comes
in God’s own good time
and pays no heed
to my panicky pushing.
it is time for me
to embrace my humanness
to love my incompleteness
it is time for me
to cherish the unwanted
to welcome the unknown
to treasure the unfulfilled
if I wait to be
perfect
before I love myself
I will always be
unsatisfied
and ungrateful.
if I wait until all the flaws, chips,
and cracks disappear
I will be the cup that stands on the shelf
and is never used.
Perfection as a “being” has no definition. It has no form, because it has nothing tangible to ultimately compare “perfection.” ”We strive for perfection in things we do, but we can never be it. Yet, when we do and “fail” at our doing we often become “imperfect,” labeling ourselves. The phrase, “The Perfect Cup” makes no sense. Does the cup have a crack? It might fail or be imperfect at holding water, but it is still just a cup, its own cup. Is there some ultimate example of what a cup should be? No.
What is a flaw? Who defines “blemish?” If I accept a “blemish,” does it cease to be a blemish? Is it time to accept my humanness and my divinity, as created in His image? Is it time to love my incompleteness, or to realize I am NOT incomplete, I am whole? What have I told myself I don’t want or don’t like or don’t cherish? Can I stop striving and be unfulfilled…and through that actually BE fulfilled?
Can I drink out of my own cup and be ok with that?
Love this poem…although I don’t feel it takes God into account. Without our blemishes, where would our need for God be? I’d much rather be broken and with Him than perfect without. But still…love this poem. Thanks for sharing it.
Some one like you makes the heart seem the lighter,
Some one like you makes the day’s work worth while,
Some one like you makes the sun shine the brighter,
Some one like you makes a sigh half a smile
Life’s an odd pattern of briers and roses,
Clouds sometimes darken, nor sun shining through,
Then the cloud lifts and the sun light discloses
Near to me, dear to me–Some on like you.
I’m not religious, but I am spiritual, so I will add my own little take on the poem. I see it as saying that acceptance is the key to peace, as if we wait until things are “perfect” or how we think they should be, we are distracted from enjoying the present moment and what we truly have to offer to ourselves and to others.
We have a habit of presenting life with a set of conditions and holding ourselves back, but in actuality, we need to be brave and vulnerable and commit to ourselves to enjoy who and what we are NOW, not when things are “perfect.”