Final Result

So after church, and hoping to have gained some patience and inspiration - I returned to the dreaded 'wall disaster'.  I was determined to use ONLY whatever supplies I had on hand...so no more crazy trips to craft stores!!

I am content with the final result and had decided I will NOT be changing out any more dated fixtures in this place...unless, of course, I do a complete overhaul and pain the whole interior.  And, by 'paint the whole interior' I mean pick out colors and pay someone to do all the hard work!!

TA DA.....

I can live with this!

DIY HELP needed!!

A week ago I had the ancient thermostat replaced by a fancy new digital one.  It works perfectly and I love it.  One problem though - the new one is not the same size or shape as the old one so the bare wallboard is visible.

I thought this would be an easy 'fix'...not so!  I went to the local Home Depot and bought a little can of white paint.  My wall is white.  White is white, right?  NO!!  I made several trips back and forth, bought a whole variety of 'white' paint and NONE of them came close to matching.  And, NO - I am not going to re-paint the whole wall!

TOO shiny, TOO white!

So, my clever daughter suggested I make the 'oops' into a focal point by framing it somehow with a splash of color or something.  BRILLIANT!

I hunted around in the garage and found some leftover paint from the kitchen remodel, using masking tape to create a little design and painted away.

I was NOT pleased with the result. I am not a very good painter.

OK - somewhat improved, but not quite right!

So yesterday while I was toodling around in Michael's Arts and Crafts store I stumbled upon the Martha Stewart section. I should have run away as fast as I could.  But - I became enthralled with all the pretty, easy and professional looking DIY project.  I snapped up some funky little stencils, a bunch of tiny tubes of paint and hurriedly went home to CREATE!

Now - I have an even worse looking disaster.

OMG...HORRIBLE!!

Ideas?? Thoughts??  Suggestions?? HELP!!

Wounded Healer

One of my favorite professors of all time was one I met in Divinity School.  His name was Henri Nouwen.  Henri was a Dutch Roman Catholic theologian and he was a very special man.  Henri was soft spoken and self effacing.  He had lofty credentials, was a superb teacher and a deeply spiritual human being.  Every evening around 5pm he would sit in the stone meditation chapel (found underground beneath the main Sterling Quadrangle Chapel in which I was married) and lead us in evening prayer.  It was a powerful contemplative experience.  He taught a course called "Compassion".

Despite all his academic success he decided to leave Yale to serve the developmentally disabled residents of L'Arche.  His work was of the humblest sort - helping a man brush his teeth in the morning or assisting someone with their self care by feeding them or tying the laces on their shoes.  Not what one expects of a lauded Yale professor of Theology!

I fondly remember Henri walking absent mindedly around campus wearing the same shabby blue crewneck sweater nearly every day!  He frequently invited student to his simple apartment for wine and cheese and conversation.  My favorite book of his is entitled, The Wounded Healer.  It's a profound little text and it sits on the bookshelf in my office.  It has graced every office I've ever had starting with my first social work job at the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT. Almost 34 years later it is still a treasure and I turn to it now and again for sustenance.

I am humbled and reminded in my work every single day that each of us is wounded in some profound way and it is by serving as a witness and companion to the pain and suffering of others that I am able to hope for healing within.

"When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.  The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares".

Henri Nouwen

Radio Silence

I haven't been posting lately and I miss it.  There are good reasons why I haven't been posting.  None of the stuff going on in my life right now are things I want to write about and share.

No major disasters, rather a whole series of medium and little disasters.  Most of them having to do with friendship relationships, misunderstandings, hurt feelings and so on.  A friend I've had for almost 15 years actually 'unfriended' me from FB because I took issue with her giving some guy she knows my home phone number and address.  He called on a Sunday night (10pm) and asked why I haven't been attending temple services!!??  Uh - because I'm Episcopalian?!!  I 'took her to task' for giving someone my number and personal information without checking first with me.  She felt I was 'snarky'!  SERIOUSLY??  (She's become a recent convert to Judaism with which I have no issue).

A second incident with another long time friend with whom I'd made a plan (months ago) to have a wonderful three day get away on the coast of San Simeon/Cambria area.  I made and paid for the reservations.  I arranged for a pet sitter.  When I got a text from her telling me she was in Vegas and not planning on coming home for our trip I 'lost it'!  Who does this sort of thing??

Of course it does not escape my attention that I am the common denominator.  Are my standards and expectations for loyalty from friends too high? Unrealistic? Overly demanding?  I've never thought so - but perhaps I am wrong.  As a single woman I depend on my fiends a great deal and I am ALWAYS  there for them when they have needed me.

Oh! Think Not My Spirits Are Always As Light by Thomas Moore

Oh! think not my spirits are always as light,
And as free from a pang as they seem to you now,
Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of to-night
Will return with to-morrow to brighten my brow.
No: -- life is a waste of wearisome hours,
Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;
And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,
Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.
But send round the bowl, and be happy awhile --
May we never meet worse, in our pilgrimage here,
Than the tear that enjoyment may gild with a smile,
And the smile that compassion can turn to a tear.

The thread of our life would be dark, Heaven knows
If it were not with friendship and love intertwined;
And I care not how soon I may sink to repose,
When these blessing shall cease to be dear to my mind.
But they who have loved the fondest, the purest,
Too often have wept o'er the dream they believed;
And the heart that has slumber'd in friendship securest
Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceived.
But send round the bowl; while a relic of truth
Is in man or in woman, this prayer shall be mine, --
That the sunshine of love may illumine our youth,
And the moonlight of friendship console our decline.