try looking at a dead leaf

Just go for a walk in a wood, or to a nearby tree, and find a fallen leaf – a dead leaf. Pick it up. Take it in your hand. Look at all the detail on the leaf, in the leaf: the structure of the leaf, the veins; the colours; the form of the leaf. Let it rest in your hand and gaze upon it for a few minutes.

Such a simple thing to do. And yet, if you can forget all your worries for these few minutes, if you can let the rest of life disappear, so that there is just the leaf, you'll see its beauty. No matter that it is dead and withering: still, it will appear beautiful to you. It may be half eaten, tattered, frayed. Still, it will appear perfect in its current form.

When we let go of our idea of what a perfect leaf should look like – when that concept is not present in our mind – then every leaf becomes perfect, living or dead. And feeling this perfection in a dead leaf, it begins to resonate within us. And we will start to see perfection wherever we look.

Even if we look within ourself, there's a chance that we may see the perfection that we are. Namaste.