Images of perfection

 As a wise (and also totes gorgeous) man once said, ‘if you climb up a small hill, you’ll be able to see where the path is leading’. 

I’ve been offered a job I think I’m going to accept. It’s a job with lovely people where I know I can have impact but it is literally half the salary of my last job and I can’t really afford to take it. But my self esteem needs employment and I need something I can do standing on my head (or thereabouts - I’ll have plenty to learn), given the family stuff I need to traverse over the coming months. 

I feel so much guilt at having not been able to thrust myself into something bigger, and better paid, but I guess sometimes we have to appreciate the small hills and see where the shorter walks take us.  The same wise man suggested  that even if my perfect job came along right now, I might not be in the right place in my life to do it anyway. 

Which made me wonder what my perfect job would be. Simulating company, achievable targets, a place that will simulate my creativity whilst using my strategic head, a place where I can make a tangible difference, hybrid working and not too much travel, somewhere I’ll learn and share my skills and expertise. Not feel stressed. Earn enough to keep the balls in the air and have an occasional holiday. Ideallly four days a week, not five, so that I can use and develop my side hustles too,. The new job ticks a fair few of those boxes. I mean, if it were on a Greek island that would also be quite cool but one has to realistic. And I don’t believe perfection exists. Or do I????

I started to think about the things that can be perfect. I’d invite you to consider this for a few moments. The pleasure of a really nice cup of tea. Or sunshine on your face. To dry yourself using the perfect towel: absorbent, light but snuggly, not too big, but big enough to make you feel small and cute, ideally in a nice colour that flatters your complexion. A smiling exchange that fills your heart - boom! 

In some places, it seems perfection can exist. 

This took me to consider some things that I have no expectations of, in the perfection department. I came up with pecan nuts as a low hanging example. Or handbags. I  gave up on that search a long time ago. 

I started to consider why I have walked away from some things in my life that have felt so nearly perfect (I think the not-perfect bit simply mattered too much) but decided not to go there right now and invite my pheonix to take a nap in some tucked away location while I held my face to the sun. 

In other news, a woman stopped me in the swimming pool today, and asked who devised my exercises for me. This made me feel very good because the answer is ME! My working assumption was that I honestly looked like a bit of a plonker trying to run up and down the pool, doing leg kicks and body twists.  

We chatted for a bit and she talked about her neck pain, and some other stuff (quite a bit of other stuff) and I gave her some energy holds there and then by the steps. She said I made her day. And she made mine. A vignette of female connection, support and mutual warmth. 

As moments in time go, pretty perfect!