Imperfectly Perfect

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Most of the time, I can’t keep up with all my social media accounts. I’m not sad about this because it means I have better things to do than spend all my time on my phone. On a really busy day, I might just get in, check my notifications, and get out.

But recently, I took some time to revisit Instagram. This is my second favorite social media app, right after Snapchat, where I connect with my kids. I’ve intentionally worked on my feed so that the majority of what I see on there is exactly what I want to see - funny pet videos.

Every now and then, something about starting a new business will sneak its way through and that’s what happened when I found a woman’s post about the animal art she creates. I had never seen her before.

Her post talked about how she had just about given up on Instagram when she decided to try one more post to see if she could get some attention. She said it had felt like she was sending info into the void, with no one responding or even liking her content. I get it. I’ve been there. Sometimes it’s easy to wonder if anyone would miss the content you create if you just stopped.

But as the video was rolling, showing these adorable animal paintings she created, she was explaining that in her last ditch effort to gain followers, she had decided to be honest. She talked about how hard it is to start a business that it seems only you believe in. How difficult it is to continue working on paintings day after day, with very few people buying. She even talked about how close she was to throwing in the towel and going back to a 9 to 5 job with a steady paycheck.

​Ding, ding, ding, ding!

Her post blew up! She had thousands of people who liked it and at least double that many comments. Previously, she had pretended that she was making tons of money and had lots of buyers. It seems her honesty worked. People could understand her when she talked about how hard building a business from scratch, that was far from perfect, can be.

I completely get it.

As I was thinking about her post, I happened to glance around my living room. I noticed the grandkid toys stuffed haphazardly into the bookcase. Sitting right beside me on the couch is a pile of books I rarely get to jump into, but are there because I can’t give up the idea that I might be able to grab ten minutes to read one of these days. We have built-in shelving that is absolutely stuffed with photos of people we love, jammed in at all angles. And finally, there are the dog toys scattered around.

I’m no interior designer, but I know that every day I spend outside of my house, I can’t wait to get back in it. It doesn’t matter to me that it doesn’t look perfect or ready to be photographed for a magazine layout. It’s cozy, comfy, and has some of my favorite people in it.

And one of those favorites happens to be a dog. Her name is Jill. About a year after we got our Mini Australian Shepard named Jack, we decided he needed a friend to hang out with when we couldn’t be there. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend on this friend, so I spent a long time looking.

We finally found a lady with some Mini Aussies that weren’t quite good enough to be purebreds. That was fine with us. When we met the woman and saw her puppies, she pointed Jill out to us. She said she was one of the less expensive puppies because that white ring of fur didn’t quite go all around her neck. She would never be show dog material.

​Seriously!

That’s all I needed to hear. We brought Jill home with us and have loved her ever since.  

In my authentic journey, I have discovered that being imperfectly perfect is much more interesting than any of the well polished and highly filtered photos I see on social media. It’s okay if you have an immaculate home, with an amazing business, and a purebred Aussie to boot. I just happen to think the really good stories and situations come with an extra layer of dust on them.