WOW: Resilience - Thursday

A quick refresher: 

Resilience:

re·sil·ience

rəˈzilyəns/

noun

noun: resilience; plural noun: resiliences

1. 1. 

   the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.

   "nylon is excellent in wearability and resilience"
2. 2. 

   the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

   "the often remarkable resilience of so many British institutions"

   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   
   

   The above image pretty much sums up my every little hope for my son.  I want just exactly that for him.  Truth be told, I want it for myself just as much.
   
   Let's face it...perfection is a lifeless goal.  Perfection doesn't allow for any of the experiences  that make up a life-well-lived.  Perfection is cold and sterile and remote.
   
   Perfection is out to get you.
   Perfection wants to take you down.
   Perfection whispers insidious little messages of discontent and discouragement into your ear.
   Perfection wants to tell you that you aren't enough.
   Perfection will demand that you relinquish everything that makes you unique.
   
   Perfection is, in my opinion, the very absence of life.
   
   Wouldn't you rather write your story in the lines of mistakes and lessons learned?  In the doors closed and windows opened?  In risks taken and challenges faced?
   
   Perfection, opposite a life full of real nitty-gritty living, doesn't seem so appealing after all.
   
   You know what's really wrong with perfection?  It's perfect. It's complete. It's the absolute absence of anything else. It's unwavering -unchanging - ungrowing.
   Un-Growing.
   The opposite of growing.
   The opposite of living.
   
   I don't want my son to strive for perfection. I want him to strive for a life well lived.  A full, rich, storied life of ups and downs and twists and turns.  A life of realizations.  A life of lessons.  A life of finding his own unique paths.  A life of ever-changing, ever-rearranging growth.
   
    A life of resilience.