Be as Perfect as Bacon

You know the saying, everything is better with bacon. Here you see my favorite shot at a butcher’s counter, and yes I was drooling as I snapped the picture. No matter how you slice it your world will be better than you ever imagined. I thought about this saying, and how it makes you feel just seeing bacon. And the impact it’s smell, the sound of it cooking, the way it flavors everything it touches. Bacon is amazing.

When was the last time I had that impact on anyone or anything? When was the last time I made people think or feel this way, simply by being myself? It’s true, bacon has set the bar pretty high. (And yes, vegans and vegetarians will not agree with any of this, and I can respect that.) There is nothing wrong with challenging yourself to do better. There is nothing wrong with working to become a stronger you. There is nothing wrong with daring to bring out more of who you are. There is nothing wrong with believing that there is something inside you worth the effort to refine.

The challenge comes when we expect perfection and begin to believe that only perfection is tolerable. We set the bar so high that there is no room for failure or defect. The realities of life are seen as flaws instead of opportunities to learn, grow and become. When we think that only the perfect is acceptable we fail to see that it is our flaws that make us truly human, and make us relatable to everyone around us. No one and nothing is perfect, not even bacon…

We get programmed by sayings and the media. We are convinced subliminally that only our best self will ever be good enough, and nothing less than perfection will ever be adored. Even bacon has to be cooked, shrunk by heat, and bubble up to release it’s amazing contributions to the world. Bacon gets sliced and diced, chopped and liquified for us to experience its true gifts. If we simply allow ourselves to see that the same is true for humans, then we can be as ‘perfect’ as bacon. We can bring our best self to the world by being minced and chopped, flavored and cartelized by life’s lessons. When we learn from the process and challenges of life we release our true gifts.

So smell the bacon, savor the flavor and allow your true self to make everything better simply because you were part of it.