You Are Perfect

A love letter.

This newsletter is in honor of the new year. I’ll be sending out my regular newsletter on Sunday.

Many people would say I use the word “perfect” too freely. I wonder, what do you think of, when you think of the word perfect?

I remember the first time I realized I was a perfectionist— I was sitting in my therapist’s office only a few years ago. She asked me if I thought I was a perfectionist. Immediately my mind conjured an image: a put-together woman wearing a pencil skirt, a blazer, sheer pantyhose and high heels. “I’m not good enough to be a perfectionist,” I said, and immediately saw that I was a perfectionist.

I’ll be unraveling my perfectionism for the rest of my life, I’m sure. The idea that there is a “perfect” and that “perfect” lives far out, somewhere I can’t reach is in tension with what I experience when I’m tuned in to myself.

The word perfect, like all words, has multiple meanings.

Whole. Complete. Flawless.

From the English parfit, it can mean “lacking in no way” (late 14t…