I’ve been struggling all week on writing the mission statement for the new group I am forming.  Narrowing the scope of the project to make it easier to explain is not something I want to do, at least not yet.  There are so many wonderful and positive things we can do with this group.  I feel if we limit our scope in the beginning stages, we might miss helping those who need it the most.  Through my frustration and delay while attempting perfection, I had a few random events come together which granted me some serious “light bulb” insights.  Bear with me while I depart from my normal blog format to share some simple bullet points.

Perfection is not only impossible, it is over-rated.  Imperfection is where all the great stuff happens.  If we wait for perfection, we miss out on opportunities to give perfect love through imperfect acts. 

We are our absolute strongest when we feel completely powerless.

No matter how good of a person we are, sometimes bad things just happen.  There are times when they pile on, one after another, making us wonder about the quality of our luck or what lesson we are supposed to be taking from this set of challenges.

When those who have gone through some of the roughest crap life has to offer are asked how they did it, the most common answers are, “I didn’t have a choice” and “I don’t know, I just knew I had to keep moving forward.”

While we are perfectly capable of knowing what we need to do for ourselves, often it is easier to know than do.

It’s easier to help and guide others than to face down our own battles.  I’ve also discovered the tasks which should be the easiest to complete are often the most difficult to get motivated to do.

Those who reach out a hand and ask for help in a very specific and simple way are more successful than those who try to trudge through on their own.

We will revisit these topics through our journey together but, for the moment, I want to share a few details about the one that is screaming at me today.

Yesterday, I was having an awful “pity party” day.  I am always so embarrassed to admit that I cave into the pure selfishness of “woe is me”.  Maybe it was just my day to really feel the frustration and loneliness so I could release it.  Maybe it was so I could recognize the signs of clarity which were delivered to me throughout the day.  Since perfection is not the goal but showing perfect love through imperfect acts is, the second statement is the one which feels like the best fit.  I had already decided the name of our group page “Give a Little – Take a Little” but defining the descriptive mission sentence was eluding me. 

These are the seemingly random events which stacked so perfectly, one on top of the other, to clear my mind enough to find the statement which best defines our group. 

I messaged a friend who posted a status which was just not his “normal” tone.  In asking what I could do to help, I discovered this friend has landed right in the middle of one of those stages when, no matter what you are doing to get through challenges by doing the right things, it’s just not enough to get you over the hump.  Amid his own health crisis, his mother, who lived four states away, passed away.  He is fighting a health concern that he tried so hard to avoid, laying in a hospital bed after surgery, missing his opportunity to say good-bye to his mother in person.  His beautiful, loving and strong wife put down her strength long enough to share her vulnerability in an uncharacteristic manner.      

A mother of a child born with congenital heart defects has become an amazing champion for the American Heart Association.  She has turned the scariest and lowest point of her life into such a beautiful story of spirit, love and giving.  The best part?  She gives all the credit to her incredibly strong little boy for inspiring her every moment of every day.  Right now, she is fighting an illness of her own and it’s a tough one.  In the middle of her own health challenge, she still planned and executed an inspiring birthday party which has been shared on national level media.  She traveled over an hour to share the story of the special birthday party on a local television channel while still in so much pain.  How many of us would have begged off (for very valid reasons) just because of the travel time?  Add in traveling with an energetic four-year-old and most of us would be saying “nope!”  Not this magnificently inspiring young mother.

While I find both stories very inspiring, the second inspires me to find my own imperfect way to give perfect love to the first.  Why would I feel more inspired to help the person in the first story?  Isn’t the mother more deserving of praise and more help than a middle-aged man?  I have a theory but, for now, I’m not going to share my own thoughts.   

I invite you to examine your thoughts on the issue.  Really dig in and analyze who you would be inclined to help and why.  Share your thoughts in the comments or in a private message.  Blurt out your first instinct and then think through and share the why of your instinctive reaction.  After thinking it through, does your answer change?  Get those mind gears rolling! 

Quite honestly, I was originally going to take this a different direction but, as I’ve learned repeatedly these past few months, I need to follow where I’m led instead of where I think I need to go.  Trusting my journey and path is one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life.  Yet, when I evaluate my past, I clearly see the moments when I acted simply on faith and trust have been when I experienced the purest form of happiness.  When have I felt the most successful?  When I have done this –

Giving perfect love through imperfect acts.

PS – This group is going to really challenge you to look internally multiple times so, let’s get the rusty wheels greased up and moving with this topic.  I’ll repeat it here for you.

Of the two stories I told, which person would you feel more inspired to help and why?  There is absolutely no wrong answer.  If you truly can’t decide which one takes priority to you, at least share your thoughts about each.