I’m Gratefully Incomplete

I’m a big Alanis Morissette fan.  I remember that when she first came out, she drove me nuts.  I couldn’t stand to listen to her for more than a few moments without wanting to rip my eyes out with whatever may have been handy just to distract myself.  However, my best friend loved her and made me listen to her over and over and over again.  I think I caved and fell in love with her music just out of self-preservation.  She recently came out with a new album that I picked up at the store last weekend.  While I don’t particularly care for all of the songs on it, there is one in particular that has become my new anthem.

While I was growing up, and even through college, if I had to choose a song of hers to be my anthem, I would have picked “Perfect.”  Click here for the lyrics.  This could explain a lot about why I am so interested in Brene Brown’s work.

If I had to pick one now, I would say it is her new song, “Incomplete.” 

The song discusses all of the things that she thought would be hers “one day.”  All of the things that she would be and all of the things she would do “one day.”  I lived my life like that a lot.  “One day, when I am an adult…”  “One day, when I am skinny…” (I thought this last one to myself an awful lot.)

You can get the full lyrics here, but this is the chorus (short and sweet):

I have been running so sweaty my whole life
Urgent for a finish line
And I have been missing the rapture this whole time
Of being forever incomplete

While I still have my moments, this song portrays more of my new attitude.  I would say at least 80% of my brain has finally realized that I will never be perfect and, in fact, can’t possibly ever be perfect.  Life in general will never be perfect.  I’m starting to learn to appreciate every aspect of myself, including the flaws.  Because it is those things that make up who I am.  If I suddenly became perfect, or suddenly became complete, then what would be the point?

So, what’s your current anthem?  Do you have one?