“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging. Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we are all in this together.” – Brene Brown

Lawd have mercy, I have been SO aware of my imperfections lately. And for whatever reason, I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

It started last weekend when I took Finn for a walk in the park. About a mile from the car, I became panicked because I couldn’t find my car keys. I frantically searched my pockets and started retracing my steps in an attempt to find them…only to realize they had been in my hand the entire time. I was somewhere between being mortified and laughing hysterically at the absurdity of the situation.

The next day, we headed back to the park. I’d spotted a bald eagle in the same spot a couple of visits in a row, so I decided to bring my good camera and long lens to get a better photograph than I could with the iPhone.

Not only did my eagle friend make an appearance, he flew directly in front of me, landing on a lower branch within just a few feet of the path. I framed up a beautiful shot, pressed the shutter and…there was no memory card in the camera.

Noooooooooo……

UGH. Now I was somewhere between exasperated and laughing hysterically at the absurdity of the situation. Only this time it was tougher to laugh at myself. That’s an awful lot of brainlessness to handle in such a short timeframe.

I went back home, got my memory card and headed right back to the park. And there was…no eagle. I returned yet again at sunset. And there was…no eagle.

I was pretty disappointed, mostly with myself for being so absent-minded.

But I have been looking back at the photos on my phone to remind myself that I did see some cool things and received some wonderful messages during those visits.

Like the lovely lavender tinted tree.

The the smile in the dirt.

And a super huge deer strutting his stuff.

And the best love note in the world scratched into a bridge.

And even though I wasn’t able to get the photo when the eagle was in the prime spot for viewing, I was able to point him out to several passersby who would’ve missed him otherwise. So it was at least a shared experience.

I suppose we all have goofy stumbles and glaring imperfections that float to the surface from time to time. So it’s important that we afford each other – and ourselves – a ton of grace.