I never thought about my garden in this way.

When I people visit or comment on my garden they often will oooh and ahhh (not trying to toot my own horn here). But all I see are the weeds and areas that need improving. Thinking about how I need to move this plant or that to make it just right. All of the if onlys....
So it is good for me to try and remember the beauty of it in the here and now. To stop always thinking it will be great when....

Jennifer you spoke what I am feeling. When showing someone around I am always finding weeds!

Same here!
I am consistently amazed by other peoples' gardens (I come here to oooh and ahhh over y'all's work ) while I tend to focus on all the imperfections and work that needs to be done in my own gardens and feel pretty overwhelmed and discouraged most of the time.
Every once in a while though, like when I come home after a long, hard day and get halfway through a beer, I can briefly forget about its unrealized potential and see it all as a whole sum of its journey and its parts and then even my gardens get to be amazing for a minute or two...until I see something that needs pulling or fixing and then I'm back in the mire

Yet, at the same time, I get it--I do love and appreciate my creations like no one else can because it is my own special brand of weirdness that probably only appeals to me anyway and all the treasures from various adventures tucked in here and there and everywhere, mean so much to me, whereas I'm sure it would be just more chaos or yet another rock or some obscure little half-dead plant to someone else...if I ever had visitors.

I understand exactly what you all mean when you say it's hard to relax in the garden when you know how much more needs to be done. My favorite time in my garden is early morning with a cup of coffee in my hand, walking around to see what each plant has been up to during the night. Then, the coffee cup goes on the fence rail, and I'm off to battle the weeds.

I can never keep from stopping to pull weeds and I can never get them all pulled.