Not Perfect

She wasn't complete yet

She wasn't perfect

She was the pearl growing in the shell.

She wasn't ready to be brought out this soon

But oh she longed to be.

She was the pearl that was still hidden because she didn't have the strength

to open the shell she was in.

When she came out she wasn't like the others.

She wasn't like the pearls who gleamed pink and glowed in the sunset

She wasn't like the pearls who were crazy colors and everyone noticed

She wasn't like the pearls who were little and gold and everyone wanted one on a ring

She wasn't even like the pearls who were so different that they stood out

She wasn't like the ones who were pure white and perfect.

She was the pearl who was so hard to pry out of the shell

that when she popped out she fell and rolled under the furniture

so that they had to get on hands and knees and fish around until they found her.

She was the one who was covered in dust when they finally picked her off the floor.

She was the one who still didn't seem right when they wiped off the cobwebs.

She was the pearl that was covered in a hard black layer that had formed over her in the shell.

The pearl it would take hours to finally be able to actually see what she looked like

because first the crust had to be cleared away and

It would take hours to remove.

So no one did

and they sent her to the jewelry shop where

she wasn't a pearl that stood out from the crowd of other pearls.

She wasn't a pearl that made jaws drop and everyone scramble to buy.

Not a pearl that appeared to be anything special

in fact she appeared to be rather ordinary.

She was a pearl that looked like a regular old pearl and most people went after the other pearls, the ones who were unique at first glance.

So she sat in the jewelry shop surrounded by a thousand other pearls that seemed to be destined to shine.

She was waiting

but no one wanted the ordinary-looking pearl

when they could have the perfect pearly pink one.

Or the rainbow pearl that people used to think was weird but now

was all the rage because it was different.

Some people know the pearls that don't stand out are often the best.

They're timeless

Classic

The ones that you see in family jewelry from hundreds of years ago

and will be in family jewelry hundreds of years from now.

Someone like that found the pearl and lifted her out of the dust and brushed her off

and smiled.

Someone like that put the pearl in a necklace where she could shine

Someone like that polished the pearl for the first time

removing layer by layer

the hard black casing.

It took hours of careful and patient work but slowly

the pearl started to shine through.

No one else would have taken the time.

No one else would have believed there was anything under the layers worth keeping

No one else would have come to love the pearl enough that the layers didn't matter

but they wanted the pearl to meet the sunlight

for the first time in her life.

No one else knew the pearl was even in there.

It didn't matter that the pearl didn't catch the eye

It didn't matter that the pearl didn't stand out

It didn't matter that at first glance the pearl didn't seem very interesting.

The pearl didn't have to do anything to be found and polished

and the reason she was loved

wasn't because she changed into the pearl everyone wanted

or because she improved over time.

She wasn't loved because she had tried to be loved

She was loved because someone saw her and knew there

was more to the pearl than a black layer

and someone loved her not because she was the pearly pearl

but because she was her

and she didn't have to do anything to deserve it.

It wasn't earned, it was given.

Love wasn't born because of something she did.

Love came to her because love was there already

and even if she never shone she mattered.

But she did shine even though it took a very, very long time.

and it turned out when she was held in the right light,

She turned purple.

Soft, violet purple.

But only sometimes and in the right light and

it didn't really matter anyway because

she was special no matter if she never turned purple again.

And the reason she could turn purple

was because she didn't have to.

And that was what

set the pearl free.