As a keen photographer that is one thing I have learned over the years. As I surf through the Internet and blogosphere I see all these "picture perfect" homes, families, animals, meals, knitted jumpers - lives.
People say to me sometimes, based on having seen my photoblog or photos I have shared online, that I "must have an amazing garden". I think, if only they knew! It's never all picture perfect. Picture perfect is a lie.
Leonard Nimoy's last tweet said:
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.
Perfect moments can be caught by the camera. Even that isn't always easy - but the right light, best time of day, a great camera, the right angle, the right cropping, the right editing - and often we can have it - picture perfect.
The perfect moments can be real - or they can be staged. An authentic perfect moment can be captured - or it can be created as a product to sell.
As I surf through seemingly perfect lives I remind myself that they aren't real. No one's life is always perfect. We all have night and we all have day. Life sometimes hands us perfect moments to cherish - and it also hands us hard, tough, difficult, ugly days when we can feel overwhelmed by a sense of failure or loss, are fighting to breathe and feel like we're buried. On those days I remind myself, "We're not living in Perfect". I will never be perfect. It will never be perfect.
There's a freedom that comes with that. There are weeds in my garden. The house needs a good clean. The dog desperately needs a bath and a groom. My hair is a mess. Last week I spent too much money. That's real life. That's the way it goes sometimes. And that's okay. It's okay to be real. Real is good too. Give yourself a break. A photoshopped life is a lie.
A corner of our - very imperfect - garden:
