Every May I clean out my garage, put screens on the door and settle my white resin rocker and small red table in front of the screen. This summer room becomes my “place” until late fall. I sit for hours gazing out across the marsh, at the cottages on the beach. If I turn my head slightly left, I gaze at an ugly brown door.
There are big rips and gouges on the door. They were made by a huge dog that was our “houseguest” many years ago. Every summer I hate those ugly gouges. It’s bad enough that the door is stained an ugly brown, but add the gouges, along with the memories of the dog, well, – ugh. I can’t even count how many summers I let that door bother me. We had gotten new windows in the garage two years ago and I never painted the trim on them. They were ugly brown like the door.
This spring I had enough. Today I dragged out the white paint and went to work. I finished the two windows and turned to face the door. The gouges made me stop and think. I could go downstairs and get the wood filler and fix them. Then when I painted over them they’d be gone. I put the paint down and went for the filler and tools. (Usually I’d blow right by this step to hurry and get the job done.)
I was busy filling in the gouges and smoothing them over when I realized hearts, like old gouged up doors, can be filled in, smoothed over, and painted to be pleasant again. Eventually you get tired of dragging a broken heart around. Fix it. Fill in the gouges. It can be made new again. It can regain it’s rightful place as an energy provider instead of an energy drainer. Like the door, you have to take the time to patch up the holes before painting. Once the putty is in place, spend time carefully smoothing it. Rework that doughy mixture and pretty soon the heart is ready for the first coat of paint. One won’t do it. Just like the brown stain will bleed through the white paint, so the heart will still bleed a bit through the first coat of paint. Put on two or three more. The door turns white. The heart begins to shine with new life.
And so, as another day goes by, it’s good to fix the door before painting it, and…I have written.
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