I have discovered a new passion: sanding stain off chairs to reveal the beautiful wood underneath. My next passion will hopefully be applying stain to the bare wood and
completing the transformation of our counter stools. I'm learning as I go!
Our new home in the woods will be ready soon. We’re still checking things off the list of needed purchases and one of them was chairs for our new
kitchen table plus counter stools for the island. After shopping chairs and being underwhelmed, except for $500 custom kitchen chairs (each!), we found some nearly identical used ones, only they aren’t the right color. I heard myself say, “We can strip them down and stain them to match!” Hubby said before we buy those, why don’t you practice on our current counter chairs, which are also the wrong color for the new home.
I’ve been working on these chairs on the weekends for a few weeks now. It’s hard work! But I love it! It’s kind of like vacuuming—there’s an instant visual payoff. They went from being old chairs (that we bought used in 2015) with scratches and chips in the stain, to beautiful natural wood. They are brand new again, “overnight.” It was amazing to see the first one transform right in front of my eyes. I’ve never refinished
anything before. You hear about it and you see the before and after photos, but often not the in-between stage. You usually aren’t shown the lovely natural wood, the original state.
These chairs get to start a whole new life! From this unstained form, they can be anything! They could be painted pink or stained to a dark walnut. Literally, I can
make them whatever I want them to be. The possibilities are endless!
The truly mind-bending thing for me is that these chairs have been this beautiful wood all along. But I had never known it or seen it. We liked them enough to buy them used nearly ten years ago, but somewhere along the way, they became our “old chairs.” We didn’t love them
anymore, we tolerated them.
I didn’t realize my old chair was only wearing a disguise, that she was still beautiful underneath old stain. I didn’t understand that with some hard work, she could reveal her true beautiful self once more. And then from that point, she is free to choose what she wants to be next. (Well I'm free to choose for
her!)
Many of us are overdue for updates. Mentally. Emotionally. Spiritually. Physically. Wardrobe-ly. (UGH I seriously need help with that, stylist anyone?) We’ve let ourselves get worn in certain areas, or maybe in many ways. We’ve nurtured lies that say, This is just the way it is, and we’ve watched ourselves become less shiny, less of the person
we used to be. Maybe we think that who we are now is all that’s left of us?
Well that’s just not true. We may have some wear and tear, but we are every bit as wonderful, or more, than we ever were. It’s time to peel the top layers back to rediscover our loveliness. (Please read the Galway Kinnell poem I’m including at the end.)
Some of us may have gotten to the point that we don’t even recognize who we are anymore. I worked with a coaching client who came to me saying exactly that. “I don’t know what happened to me. I used to be so confident and active. Now I’m overweight, unsure of myself and indecisive. I don’t go anywhere or do anything. I have zero zest for life.”
It happens to the best of us! But when we wake up to a place we don’t want to be, we don’t have to stay there. If we’re carrying around outdated thinking, or we are in a job we barely tolerate, or they barely tolerate us, maybe it’s time to remember and appreciate the beautiful selves that we still are.
It will take hard work, but we can peel away layers of lies and disguises to return to the selves we know and love, the ones we were created to be. We can reconsider what we want and what direction we want to go next.
It’s never too late to be you again.
It's never too late to start a new chapter, whatever that might look like for you. We
can’t be afraid to ask for help. Our current consciousness is not likely going to lead us somewhere new. A transformation must occur and either we roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves, or we ask for help. The only way to NOT do it right, is to not do it.
I’m thrilled to say this client has made a total turnaround in a very short four months. My
program, A Life Worth Having is not for the faint at heart. She worked hard to restore herself to someone she recognizes again. She’s excited about her future and a new passion she’s nurturing. I’m honored to help. What a privilege to see a life go from joyless to joyful in record time.
I’m good, but I’m not responsible for what this client has recovered—herself. She was already there, just waiting to be revealed again. I helped her separate the worn-out messages from her zest for life, still simmering under the surface.
If this message is hitting home and you’ve not been able to find your fresh start, get help. Call me. Call someone. Don’t stay stuck wearing an identity that isn’t the you that you love anymore.
For
some of us, it takes a village to grow old and happy! I’ve used coaches, sponsors, therapists, pastors, mentors, lots of prayer and more. Anything is possible with desire, willingness and hard work. I’m here to support you in whatever way I can—before, during and after. If you're still breathing, it's not too late.
If you missed the last two emails
about buds and blooming, click here and here. Announcements
below!
Please enjoy this lovely poem for emphasis and encouragement.
Saint Francis and the Sow
By Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from
within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her
thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
Galway Kinnell, “Saint Francis and the Sow” from Three Books. Copyright © 2002 by Galway Kinnell. Reprinted with the permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved, www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com.
