The more I look at it, the more I love this snapshot of a piece of paper during a big calligraphy order recently. It’s pretty, in a way, and it makes me smile, too! This piece of paper shows the less than pretty side of calligraphy… dabbing ink off of your nib every few letters, ink splotches & drips & spills, testing out new styles, cramped hands, ink stained fingers.

This is the unedited, not so pretty, unstyled side of my calligraphy work, but I definitely can see the potential for beauty here, and I love the real-life and unfiltered glimpse behind the scenes. And that’s life sometimes, right?! To outsiders, life may come across as perfect or just right on the outside, but there’s always some semblance of a slightly more chaotic or messy side, too. Embracing these moments… these busy or chaotic or less than ideal situations and events… is what life is all about. How you respond to stress or being pulled in varying directions or chaos or the messy side shows your tenacity and your personality and your heart.

I feel so much relief – and even so much more acceptance of myself and my flaws – when I realize others that I admire and look up to have flaws and don’t have it all together. Because no one really has it all together! My perfectionist side likes to come out, and I try to have all aspects of my life in control and perfectly in place… but it’s refreshing and it’s real when you realize that there is grace, and there is a messy side of life, and there is imperfection. You can still have a full, meaningful, beautiful life that does have imperfections and does have a messier side, because we are human & we are meant to! Your attitude, your perspective, and your heart behind embracing all of that mess is what really matters. I’m thankful that the messy scribble and pen scratches of my calligraphy work can produce beautiful writing and paper goods for momentous events and moments for the people I work with. Sometimes it takes a messy behind-the-scenes to create the most beautiful and meaningful work.