Pace, Progress, and the Pursuit of Perfection.

 Perfection is a misnomer, it does not exist. The quest  for the ideal may, but the actual nirvana of where nothing goes wrong, people don't fail, roadblocks don't appear, and you have everything you could ever hope to buy?  That doesn't happen.

 I used to think that if my children didn't get straight A's in school that they would somehow end up in the gutter. I used to to think if I couldn't have a BMW when I grew up that I would be destined to living a  Gremlin hatchback lifestyle where I roam the country in tattered Levi's and flip flops. I always daydreamed of a fabulous lifestyle of me on the back of a yacht cruising parallel down the coast of South Beach drinking my de rigeur cocktail throwing my head back with  a casual, carefree laugh.  It was either this extreme or that extreme and nothing in the middle The middle to me meant mediocrity, it meant I was going to be like everyone else who just fell under the radar and not making any splashes.

And then...

I grew up and realized that happiness and progress aren't tied to superficial things or attaining things that defined with terms like number one , the  best, Valedictorian, (I wasn't even close!)  president or dare I say it whether I have  Christian Louboutins or a Christian Dior purse.  Don't get me wrong, I still pine after those things, but that's just fun now.  My life is "perfect" right now as it is. And even if it were to take a down slide, it would still be "perfect" as  imperfect as it looks on paper.  Why ? Oh, I will tell you, you know that by now reader. Right? Right.

If you are moving in the right direction, if you are getting better than you once were- the "perfection" is in the development; it's in the progress.  It's the your desire to want to be a better human being. It's in your desire to increase your thoughtfulness, your ethic, your loyalties, your parenting skill sets;  It's in your practice to set goals. It's in your practice to improve. It's  in your wants to be more mindful or to pay it forward. If you are aware of your abilities and accomplish what your intended then you are earning your "A". It may take the tortoise longer to get to the finish line than the hare, but the tortoise still got there. He accomplished the exact same thing, it just took a little bit longer. God isn't looking at how fast you accomplish something, he just looks to see if you fulfilled your purpose here on the planet you inhabit.

Someone told me that I should not fret if something if my children don't understand conceptually what I am trying to teach them as fast as I think they should. That everyone  develops at their own pace and as long as their foundation is solid, as long as they embody the important values that I am teaching them that it's not gong to matter Isabella forgets to wash her face or color in the lines or whether Jock leaves his shorts on the floor.  The chores themselves don't matter. Getting straight A's isn't necessary. The A's can be earned, Isabella can stay in the lines, both the kids can keep a tidy room IF the use  with the grunt work, the ethic, the determination and performance of those ideals with consistency. << That is what I am trying to teach them. They will get it.  It is simply not going to matter if Jock understand Pythagorean theory or that quantum physics BS.

Truth be Told:  Progress just has to be on pace, which means moving in the proper direction . That is the only qualifier to perfecting it. Don't listen to the naysayers who insist you need to be driving you car around the track the fastest to win. Sometimes your car  breaks down or runs out of fuel.  You replenish and fill up, and keep it moving around the track and can still beat the driver who had pole position. The finish flag is in your sights.