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never dull but always the same

One day when I showed my husband Sara's blog, he sat there and stared a minute, then said something like, "I wonder if she'd come to our house and think it's really plain, like an empty canvas." And I've thought about the "empty canvas" a few times.
For example, in our front entryway there are two places that are about the same size as a canvas in my artroom. Yet I would never think of painting something there, and it would have never ever crossed my mind had Sara not opened up that line of thought and possibility. We also have a tray ceiling in the living room, and my nephew informed me he thought it was the perfect place to line up pictures of him and our other nieces and nephews. I laughingly declined, but later it made me ponder how I could see a simple space but he saw a place in need of something.

I think our days in life are that way. The last two mornings have been those hard to get up and going days, and yet both days have been very full, if not productive. Today's been downright crazy (a dead chicken, punished dogs, errands with a test, cool spring rain and contemplations on many things), and yet today has really not been all that different from every other day on the calendar. (Other than the fact I kept thinking it was Wednesday all day at work). But maybe that's because I viewed today as simple space instead of a canvas waiting to be decorated. How would my days be different if I could renew my mind to immediately think "WHOhoooO!" upon awaking instead of "ohhhhhhhh" with a sigh? If I was so transformed that I saw this day's blank canvas as the gift that it is instead of a piece of paper with "To Do" at the top and many little dots or check boxes underneath it? If I saw the bright sun beckoning me when I got up instead of taunting me, just as I see rain as the refreshing welcome bath for the world that it is?

My days will always be the same in some ways: shoes will always make my feet hurt, my joints will ache and pop the first twenty minutes I move, and I'll always have to decide what to do for meals and wash clothes. I guess we could say those are our art supplies. But the rest, that blank canvas - what if I treated it a little bit differently every day instead of the same old colors and look? Life could be very interesting indeed.

Comments

Jennifer said…
you always have such a beautiful way of putting things, Monica! On a side note, my house is much plainer than yours and wish I could decorate too.
sara said…
Yes but God makes people that fill spaces and people who create calm- see we need both to survive. I think most of the world would be a little too overwhelmed at my house.

Your house is beautiful just the way it is- open and airy with lots of gorgeous views.

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