Spring Cleaning

The old stairs. The new stairs will go up half way, have a landing, then come up the rest of the say. the table and chairs and two wicker chairs renewed - ready for company.

Y'all come now!

Up until a few years ago, when my heart insisted that I create a new approach to a healthy environment, I did all the work myself. This included painting, wall paperiing, tiling, mowing, weeding, and and pruning. I even hauled two tons of landscaping dirt, wheel barrow by wheel barrow when I got home from school each day - , while the neighborhood old men laughed at my determination.

Now, I get to hire others to do  the heavy work.

Can't say I would have built new stairs for my house, but there is a crew building a new set of stairs this week. Today, I am confined to upstairs until the end of the day.

In the meantime, earlier in the week, I hired a dear woman to paint the porch furniture. I put down drop cloths instead of having her take the furniture down stairs. Everything in me screamed paint the furniture downstairs. Half of the porch furniture is wicker. The wind upped its speed to 22 mph by noon.  The first resulting fiasco was a cover cloth on the table blew up and knocked the paint on the drop cloth. Martha proceeded to scoop it up with her bare hands and return it to its can while I ran for a scooper. It was done by the time I returned one minute later and she was adding paint to the furniture with her paint covered hands. I opened the door for her, led her to the sink, and poured the soap over her hands. After we had a great laugh and a deep breath, she returned to the painting.

When the job was on the last love seat, I came out on the porch and noticed that, because of the wind and the nature of the wicker, the paint had been blown through the wicker and onto the uncovered part of the porch, the other table, icemaker, and sliding glass doors.

It was already past dinner time, so I helped her finish the paint job  - after covering the naked, yet spatterd parts of the porch. While we did this, she began apologizing for not noticing. I, on the other hand, was totally pissed off at G-O-D for the wind. This is my commonly applied  scapegoat when my thinking brain has failed to consider all the details in preparing for such "feats". We ended up laughing heartily at the whole day. Truth is, standing back and observing the great looking painted furniture, Martha and I were really pleased with the results.

I gave Martha some socks so she could get to the sink in the house. There she washed all the paint off and took some hair conditioner to get it out of her hair. It worked. Then, I paid her and she was off for a long nights's sleep, I am sure.

Left with the part where someone gets to remove all the paint spattering, I tried something called "goof off" with a sanding sponge, then steel wool and soap, and then, aha - hair conditioner. That and steel wool did the trick. Got cha, Martha Stewart!! Now, to get someone to come and finish the job!!!

Ten years ago, I would have had a holy fit over the fiasco, but I have learned to go into that circle of unconditional love and forgiveness. I go there more spontaneously than at first. I am grateful for the gift of those who can work hard. I am grateful for the challenges the mystery presents. I am grateful for laughter. It heals and keeps us dancing.

Surely, we've all had similar experiences. Where have you found yourself laughing when it didn't happen like it was supposed to? How do you meet up with the gratitude in the center of it all?

The new stairs - noon April 16, 2010.