A story goes that a pious man finally made it to Heaven and was overheard in conversation with God. After a few minutes God is heard saying "No - that's not a sin...nope - nor that...or that...goodness you must have worried yourself to death..."
In our lives we can sometimes destroy our sense of play, creativity and faith in our general goodness by judging ourselves harshly. We set standards we find it hard to reach and consider ourselves a failure when we don't attain them. We do this with careers, we do it with our workouts and the need for perfect bodies, we do it with faith and our need to atone for sin. We chastise ourselves for failing to fix our rough edges and instead add layer upon layer of disappointment in ourselves and others.
It seems more helpful to perhaps understand and accept our imperfection - that it is baked in right from the start - that we will always be flawed or imperfect. That this is our nature - to have the capacity for goodness but not for perfection.
In acknowledging our imperfection we can perhaps avoid all the striving and anxiety that comes with seeking the unobtainable. We can learn to live with ourselves as we are. We can treat ourselves with kindness and affection. We might find something else - not a disappointment at our flaws but a trust in our basic generosity - an insight that says I am not perfect but I am doing my best, that my intentions are good.
If we acknowledge that we will always be flawed and focus on intention, we can reach a place of tenderness where we care for ourselves, acknowledging that our goals are growth and acceptance of things as they are now - not a perfect realised self at some point in the future.
The transcendence we often yearn for, it seems in this sense, will only come when we stop seeking it and we realise that who we are now is the only way we can be - flawed but trying to be a better person when we can.
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