How do you teach someone to do the best they can, but also allow them to fall short when they do?  High expectations are nothing to be ashamed of and should motivate us to be the best we can ever be.  But we should set the bar high for ourselves, not for anyone else.  No one is perfect.  NO ONE.  Not all the time, anyway.  Yet failing is expected and happens. Great times are the pinnacle of things working out the way we expect.  But those moments are hit and miss.  Every day life is not full of perfection, by any means.  In face, I would bet that your normal looks a lot like my normal.  We are more similar than we would care to admit.  As I look around my house that has furniture in my garage, dust on the mantle, and dishes in the sink, I think to myself how much I have to do and how little time I have to do it ALL in.  I have a list of things to do that never seems to end and even when I think I start to make some headway, something else comes up.  Something unexpected.  Something that was not part of a normal day but now will consume hours to fix.  Bills still need to be paid, laundry still needs to be done, and there still should be food in the house.  We haven’t even touched the things we “want” to do! No one has all the answers.  NO ONE.  The smartest doctors still can’t cure cancer…world leaders still haven’t founded a way to make the world more peaceful…people still make wrong choices.  Some people cut themselves “too much slack” when they don’t excel — mostly due to lack of motivation and do not believe in hope.  They just give themselves reasons why they are the way they are  and let that be the end of it.  How do we get those people to change what they do?  We HAVE to change the way they think!  And for those of us that are always trying to be the “Wonder Woman”, how do we allow ourselves a tiny bit of slack when we forget a friend’s birthday, don’t study for a test, or add too much salt to a recipe for a family dinner?  This is where I struggle the most.  Does that sound familiar?  I am pretty sure I am not the only one out there who wishes for more hours in the day.  How can I be my BEST self when my best self is flawed?  Some people will never admit that they make a mistake or allow others to see them when they fall.  It is difficult to be vulnerable, but we have to be real.  We have to confess that we are all the same.  We all know it.  We mosey through life with this false sense of a life that is immaculate and stain-free.  In case you were wondering, no one lives a perfect life.  We have perfect moments.  That is the best we can do.  But I hope that this does not remind you of what we don’t have, but to remind you that “We All Bleed Red” By Ronnie Dunn 

Michelle A. Homme 2014 ©