Day 1: Our Imperfections Make Us Perfect

So here goes...  I'm going to try my best to list at least one thing I'm grateful for each day.  365 Days of Gratitude :)

So today, I'm grateful for an imperfect complexion.  My boyfriend's roommate, Morgan, bought bentonite clay, which is apparently some kind of amazing 100% natural Aztec clay that women use as a facial mask.  Since Morgan, and all the reviewers on Amazon.com have raved about this product, my boyfriend purchased a jar of it for me, too.  He's so thoughtful :)  (Another thing I'm very grateful for!).

I have never tried a facial mask before, and am not particularly looking forward to resembling Marvin the Martian in the process, but I do tend to favor clean, smooth, exfoliated skin, so it's worth a try!  There are 333 five-star reviews & 94 four-star reviews for this product on Amazon, out of 484 total.  That's pretty amazing!

So, before sitting down to write this, I washed my face & used my trusty exfoliating glove, which I have sworn by for probably 10 years now... I love that thing!  My face feels soooo smooth after using it, so I figure I might as well use it before applying the mask.  And as I'm looking in the mirror, I immediately notice every imperfection on my 30-year-old face.

I have a couple of little scars... no big deal.  A few bumps... not ideal, but they'll go away.  One or two tiny, broken blood vessels... I hate those things.  They won't go away.  And my least favorite, a brown sun spot just under my eye, thanks to spending a couple of years visiting the tanning bed on a regular basis.  It's my permanent reminder of befriending vanity, and allowing her to influence my life when she did not enrich it in any way. The tanning bed damage ruined several areas of my perfect skin, the name brand crap that I bought was both useless and a complete waste of money, and the things that were important to her are shallow and vapid, which I allowed to influence me for a short while back in the day.  I've moved on. Lesson learned.

So, as I notice all these "flaws" in my reflection, I realize two things:  (1) how quickly my mind goes to that place of discouragement and negativity upon the discovery of such minor blemishes, thanks to our awesome culture of nurturing low self esteems and chasing the illusion of perfection. Once I acknowledged that, I let it go. So naturally, I realized (2) I am so blessed.  I had beautiful skin my whole life, and any imperfections I find now either serve as little memories of the past (like the itty bitty scar above my lip where my kitten accidentally scratched me while playing) or are completely fixable if I really wanted to go to those lengths.  In other words, my so-called imperfections are so minor, and for that, I feel so blessed.  It could be so much worse... And the cherry on top is being with someone who cares about me regardless of how my appearance might change over time.

So, today, I'm grateful for an imperfect complexion, to remind me that vanity is reserved for those with much deeper emotional issues, and to remind me that I am blessed in so many ways.  Our "flaws" really are what make us perfect!