Holes & Imperfections

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I’ve been dropping the ball at work a bit lately, sending emails riddled with typos, missing self-imposed deadlines, feeling all sorts of stress and frenzy and anxiety. It’s a big season of growth and change for me, managing a women’s lifestyle site with a gifted staff and important mission (and shoestring budget!). I’ve always believed that life is all a matter of perspective, and I’m fortunate enough to be blessed with rose-colored glasses and an ability to see the good in a lot of situations. But when the pressure builds, my glasses sometimes turn dim and things get foggy. And then Peter Jensen comes along with a giant windshield wiper like this one.

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Sure, the collection is beautiful. But if you’ve spent any amount of time with me, you’ll know it’s the details that send me reeling. And in the case of Peter Jensen’s SS13 Barbara line, the details are not only stunning, but incredibly prolific.

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The holes are everything. The trials and the missteps and the imperfections that weave through our story, teaching us life lessons like flexibility and wisdom and perspective. The holes are it, friends.

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Wasn’t it Leonard Cohen that once sang there is a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets through? I’m sitting in that truth today, knowing good and well that light always finds a way to surface.

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Holes are real and true and worthy of acceptance – worthy of celebration. Because there will always be a hole. There will always be a mistake. There will always be a rainy morning, bad day, lonely night.

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And we can choose to do two things, it seems. We can cover the hole, trapping the light of ourselves with the fibers of expectation. Or, we can embrace it, releasing our inner glow and sharing the beauty of our imperfections the best way we know how.

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Peter Jensen chose the latter.

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I think I’ll attempt the same.

Image Credits: Peter Jensen

p.s. The beauty of our flaws.

  • I have been repeating this to myself over and over again, these days: “Accept failure as part of the process” , my hubby and I were just talking about it this morning. “Try again. Fail again. Fail better”
    You are totally up for the task and as time goes by, you will look back at this time of beginnings and think, wow….I can’t believe in just a year, I am so much further along than I thought I would be! Add to all of that, you are a mom. I look back at my journey, a year ago & can’t believe that I already have my shop up and running and have learned so much more, come so much farther. Just as I hoped I would but, seemed so far away a year ago. Thanks for the reminder and this….I will add to my mantra ” we can embrace it, releasing our inner glow and sharing the beauty of our imperfections the best way we know how.” I’ll attempt to do the same, too.
    xo
    Melis

    • Oh Melis – you are such a sweet, sweet soul. Thank you for the encouragement and gosh, yes – look at us a year ago! Wowza! Such growth in such a short, short time. We’ll get there, Ms. Melis! Wherever it is we want to be. :)

  • Oh, Erin, this is lovely. Wishing you peace of mind during this hectic, transitional time. I’m going to embrace the holes as well. By doing so, I think, we let so much light (love, support) in, too.

  • Oh, thank you for this post. I’m also in a stress zone right now, and a sick baby to go with that (nothing serious, but exhausting) makes my glasses dim too. But I’m sure they’ll clear up soon enough, if I find another perspective. X

  • Last night, I found a small hole in my favorite wool sweater. (Self-inflicted? Moths?) A few years back I would’ve quickly donated the sweater, deeming it imperfect enough to wear. However, after all I’ve been through this year I looked at the hole, shrugged and say, “Now it’s got character.” Here’s to maturity and windshield wipers like you, Erin!

    • I LOOOOOOOVE this, Britt. Yes, yes, yes to more character, imperfection and unanticipated moths. :)

  • There is a folk saying that I employ often– and though it speaks of revenge, it is not so much revenge against anyone in particular, it is revenge against the pain and failure of life:

    THE BEST REVENGE IS LIVING WELL

  • I don`t know how do you manage to give me exactly the right message in exactly the right time. thanks

  • i agree with Andrea–every time i wander over to your corner of the web i am instantly uplifted and hear just what i needed to hear. thank you.
    here’s to the holes!

  • What I love about the perspective you bring to this blog is that you take a critical eye to design and relate it back to life. Isn’t that why we express ourselves in art and design in the first place? I loved this post. Thank you, thank you!

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