The Grace to be Human

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how unforgiving the world can be when we make mistakes. Some days, it feels like being human—being imperfect—is a flaw rather than a fact. We live in a culture that demands perfection, that expects us to get it right… All. The. Time.

I was reminded of this when my daughter came home from school one afternoon, shoulders heavy with frustration and sadness. She had forgotten her homework—just once—and was disciplined by her teacher. It wasn’t just the consequence that hurt her; it was the feeling of being misunderstood, of being treated unfairly for a simple human error.

I felt her pain deeply.

We all forget things. Even her teacher, I’m sure, has forgotten something important at some point. Forgetting isn’t a moral failure—it’s part of being alive. And yet, in that moment, my daughter was made to feel like she had done something wrong. But she hadn’t. She was simply human. Perfectly imperfect.

This world doesn’t always offer grace. It rarely gives second chances for small missteps. We’re conditioned to chase perfection, to measure our worth by how flawlessly we perform. But perfection is a moving target—it never arrives. And the pursuit of it often leaves us depleted, ashamed, and disconnected from our own humanity.

So today, I invite you to pause. Think about a time you made a mistake. Maybe it was embarrassing. Maybe it still stings. But you’re here. You’ve grown. You’ve learned.

And that’s the point.

Let’s stop punishing ourselves for being human. Let’s stop fearing failure. Instead, let’s embrace the messy, beautiful truth: we are allowed to forget, to stumble, to try again. We are allowed to be human.