[cs_section style=”margin: 0px; padding: 45px 0px; “][cs_row style=”margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; ” inner_container=”true”][cs_column style=”padding: 0px; ” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″][cs_text]I have lived in my house for almost six years. When I first moved in I did some thinking about how I wanted it to look and I bought a few things to go on the walls. However, my house has never been complete. The walls in my bedroom have been bare and I only have two pictures in my living room. It is a house that is lived in but not a home. Last year I decided to make it a home. Because of time and money I could not do it all at once but I am slowly getting there. Now, it is very close to being a home.
Holes in Walls
In addition to the usual painting and choosing picture frames I am flooring in part of the attic for storage space. This is no easy task as the attic access is small and maneuvering around up there is difficult, but I was managing. It was a constant up and down the ladder carrying drills, screws, supplies and lumber, but all was relatively smooth – that is until the ladder moved slightly during one of those trips. That slight movement shifted some lumber and it all fell to the floor below. I climbed down the ladder, dreading what I would find. My dread did not disappoint, the lumber fell into the wall leaving a nice hole for me. (This does not include the section of plywood that slide down my stairs, nicking the wall along the way and scuffing the floor at the bottom). That was not a cool thing to witness.
Life can be frustrating at times. We try to make things better, push to do better, work to be better, but sometimes those tries leave holes in the wall that have to be repaired. Life is like that. I have written about it many times – life is not fair. I do not keep repeating it because I think all is hopeless but to the contrary – there is hope, we just have to understand it better. In that understanding is the messiness of life and that just because we are pursuing to be better does not mean all will be easy. Sometimes that pursuit of better can actually cause unforeseen hurdles, such as holes in walls. Yet, whether we encounter an easy route or an obstacle-filled course we never stop pursuing better.
Randomness of Life
There is a randomness to life. It is not a complete randomness – there is an over-arching plan that is being played out, but on a smaller level randomness happens to us every day. When you are late to work you may just get the red light at every traffic light you encounter. You may go to pick up a call-ahead order and have to wait 45 minutes because it was not ready. You may be driving in the rain, hit a slick spot on the road and end up doing a 360. True, we can go back and figure out the “cause” of such things. You may be driving too slow or traffic may be heavy that causes you to get the red lights. The call-ahead order may not have been relayed to those who fill them. The road may have had oil on it that you did not see. All of these may be the causes but they do nothing to the randomness of the events.
There is another side to the random events that we may never see. Being late and getting stopped at every traffic light may have prevented a wreck you otherwise may have been it. Or because that call-ahead order was not ready you were given a discount and added extras for your inconvenience. Or even though you spun in the middle of the road there were no cars around you so you were able to safely drive away. The random events of life are random, from beginning to end. Even when holes are put in walls from a ladder moving there is a randomness that I did not fall and impale myself on the lumber. Life can be random, but sometimes the randomness can be just as good as it is bad, or more so.
Never Stop
What is it we are getting at? Though when we pursue our better selves hardships may come we do not stop. Rather, we celebrate those random hardships for in those there is also good. We do not stop going to work, we do not stop calling ahead for food, we do not stop driving in the rain, and we do not stop flooring in our attics. We do not stop these things or others because we have a good goal ahead of us that is more important than random “oh-no’s.” So, when we are trying to be better and in the process we put holes in the walls we simply repair the wall and continue on. That is what we do, that is who we are, we never stop.
Attempt it. Chance it. Try it. Get to It![/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section]