When will you attain perfection? When you die? In ten, one hundred, one thousand lifetimes? Will you ever find the perfect mate? Will your mate, one day, change enough to be perfect for you? If your children make perfect scores in school, or make the Varsity team, will they be perfect? Will your "dream house" be perfect?

Perfectionism is an insidious disease of the mind. It puts everything into the future, which is unattainable. The future is always tomorrow, never today. And so many people begin their dreams with, "One day..." But "one day" never comes, because you live in today. You live in Now.

I read a story in our local paper, The Oregonian, a few weeks ago that inspired me to write. It's about a man who wanted to build the perfect house. In 1964, he bought the lot. For the next seven years, he worked on the plans for the house, which changed constantly. He began construction in 1971, which never completed. It was never perfect, so it was never finished.

In the meantime, this man's family lived in a smaller, imperfect home. His kids grew up. He grew old. Eventually, he died. And his family never spent a single night in his "perfect" house. It's now on the market. Some other family will inhabit the dream home that was never perfect enough to be finished or lived in.

Therein lies a lesson for everyone, I think. Will you wait for tomorrow's perfection, or will you enjoy what is imperfect today?

The truth is, that everything is perfect in its own imperfection. Chew on that. It's true. Why does "imperfection" exist? Did God create imperfectly? Hardly. Do we make imperfect choices? That depends on your point of view.

There are some who live their lives afraid to fail. They choose the safe road. Safety often leads to unhappiness, because if you are following your heart to the things that will bring you happiness, then you are on the challenging road, not the safe one. But failure is equated with imperfection, and I've known many people (myself included) who were raised by parents who tacitly demanded nothing less.

But what is this elusive perfection that so many of us are trying to live up to? It depends on whom you ask. In my case, I had to have a perfect grade point average. I even had to graduate Valedictorian of my class (I didn't, which was a gift from the Universe). I had to marry well. I had to be "successful," which meant I needed to make a lot of money. It meant buying a large, expensive trophy house. It meant the white picket fence and 2.3 children.

Of course, it didn't work out that way. As it turns out, I did none of the "perfect" things that would have resulted in everlasting approval from my parents. Instead, I made choices based on what I thought would make me happy at the time. Some of my choices did not result in happiness, but they did result in lessons learned and increased self-knowledge, which allowed me to make better choices and ultimately find my happiness.

Today, I live a life that my parents don't approve of, because it is "imperfect" in their eyes. To them, my life is not something they can brag about with pride to their friends and other family members. And this is their loss. My life IS perfect, right now, because I am happy. I have the perfect house for me, with it's funky electrical wiring and odd floorplan. I have the perfect mate for me, although she is not the new family member my mother envisioned. And my children are absolutely perfect as they are: they may not like the same things I do, they may have different tastes and ideas, and they may disagree with me completely at times. It is all perfect.

Perfectionism, then, is a fine way for your mind to hold you back, and to keep you from attaining your goals and your happiness. Had I lived the perfect life that I was raised to believe in, I would be miserable and completely off my spiritual path. The fear of failure is a primary symptom of the perfectionist's disease. To overcome it, understand that there is no such thing as failure; there is only learning process.

You cannot fail. No one ever fails. People try, and they learn. Success is defined differently by different people, and no matter how you define it, you've limited yourself, because you've narrowed the possibilities. Throw out the box, and know that you succeed simply by trying, by listening, by following your heart. By living in your perfectly imperfect house, with your perfectly imperfect partner and children, today.

It is our imperfection that enables us to connect with other people. Even Christ was not perfect. He had to struggle, try, learn, and heal himself before he could gain Christhood (something which we are all capable of). But this experience of imperfection allowed him to understand others and to have compassion for them. Could you connect with a perfect being, which stands before you error-free and not capable of even imagining your struggles? I believe this is the problem that most people have with their Deity of choice today. They compare themselves with the Deity and find themselves wanting.

Of course, we cannot be found wanting if we are part of the Deity, and not separate from it. The God consciousness IS perfect. And yet, we are part of this consciousness, so we are divine ourselves. But we are imperfect, too, so we are perfect in our imperfection.

Embrace yourself as you are today, in this moment. You are beloved of the Universe no matter what you think you are, or what you have done. None of it matters. Because you are perfect today, everything is perfect today, if only you will own it.