Wholeness in imperfectness

We struggled in our work for the last one week and were frustrated that we couldn’t make any progress. We learnt a lot, but the end result that we were seeking eluded us. We put aside all other issues, even our personal life and worked with a single-minded goal. Then suddenly, everything began to work and things moved fast. Now we are grappling with multiple things at a time. But then we are more relaxed now and are enjoying our personal time as well. There is a sense of achievement – something that we might have otherwise missed if things went smoothly. We now know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish a dream of something better. We now know our limitations in work and are working along with them rather than being frustrated. We now appreciate our imperfectness.

I am reminded about a small story that I read long long ago.

“The Missing Piece” by Shel Silverstein is a story of a circle that was missing a piece. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went looking around for its missing piece. Because it was incomplete it could roll very slowly and so it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them by the side of the road.

Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole. It incorporated the piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly again.

Our life is more fulfilling when something is missing and our purpose is to search for it. The journey itself is so enriching that the end goal no longer matters.