A Year of Gratitude – July 28, 2024

I found gratitude in a place I have found it before today. It was in the discovery, or re-discovery of the fact that nothing is perfect and that there is beauty in imperfection. Nature often reminds me of both things, although in separate places. Today, it reminded me of both in a single bloom.

I was struck by the vibrant color of this bloom and then I realized that the shape was just as unique. Instead of a mound of small flower buds, there were only a few and they weren’t the shape of the other blooms on this hydrangea bush.

The leaves surrounding this flower were also irregular. They had tiny holes from some sort of pest and a few edges had been damaged by either a pest or the weather. None of the other leaves or flowers on this plant looked like this.

None of the other flowers were as vibrant as this one. And so, this unique flower reminded me of what I already knew: imperfection can be beautiful. In fact, it is the unique qualities that can be labeled as imperfections that make something stand out.

Perhaps if this bloom and the surrounding foliage had been like all the others, I wouldn’t have noticed it. I might not have found myself standing over it, marveling at how beautiful it was.

That means that the jagged leaves, pin holes, and irregular shape of the flowers and buds are what made it noteworthy. It’s what made me stop and take this photo. It’s the reason that doing so put a smile on my face.

We could all use a reminder that it is our unique characteristics that make us beautiful. And yes, it can feel like those characteristics are imperfections, but perhaps they aren’t at all. Maybe they are the qualities that make us perfectly ourselves.

Just like this flower, we are all unique. We are all different. We can all feel beautiful if we accept ourselves as we are and choose to bloom anyway, decide to be bright and let ourselves be noticed.

That isn’t always easy. I’m still working on it. With any luck, I’ll get to the place where I can be like this flower. We all can.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.