Someone walked into my house the other day, and saw this sign in my kitchen.
It irked her, she immediately wanted to fix it. I stopped her straight away.
Why? Because the imperfection in that sign is deliberate.
As a list-girl I want to be able to tick a box and say “now, at this moment I have peace”. But that is futile, peace isn’t like that.
I find that sometimes peace comes to me in the contradictions. Sometimes it is when the girls are exuberant and rambunctious and even a little wild, that I smile a quiet smile and feel peace. Sometimes it is when the storm is raging and the wind is up and the rain lashing, that I feel a sense of calm and peace. Sometimes it is when life seems most imperfect that peace surprises me.
We have had a turbulent few weeks as a family and I have been thinking about the big life questions. Tossing them around, I find that sometimes you can’t know all the answers, and yet you have the peace. Sometimes you feel the pain, and yet you have the peace. Sometimes you struggle (daily even), and yet you have peace.
As a sometime perfectionist, it is important for me to know that I can’t really achieve perfect peace, tick the box and say “this is peace”. Surprisingly, I have found that imperfect peace is just as good.