Do It With Love

My husband, John, violated a long-learned rule of relating when he said “WE” would do something that I would never have agreed to do.

What am I to do now?

Gandhi’s point is to not do it unless you can do it with love.

I did it with love when I was honest with John: It was not wholesome for you to have committed me to something without asking me first.

Then, I did it with love when I was honest with myself: I had to either do it with love or not do it at all.

The “IT” in question is detailing a house here in our manufactured home community for a friend. She has essentially already moved to be near her children and grandchildren. She hired someone to do the painting, but that did not go well for a variety of reasons. Partially, it did not go well because she had previously painted without proper information or experience.

For some of it, there is no easy solution.

Here is the before-and-after view of one corner in the master bedroom. It is amazing what a truckload of Fast ‘N Final Lightweight spackling compound can do.

It is very good karma to lovingly clean up messes you did not make!

I am reminded of our helping one of our friends move out of a house that our other friends were moving into.

I am reminded of the closing of Holistic Alliance in 2005 when we had 6,000 square feet of space to be emptied out and cleaned, making way for the new owner.

As we were there working on the house, one of our neighbors stopped in to see how it was going. She said how fortunate our friend was to have someone who was willing to step up and lend a hand. I reminded her who our friend is. Our friend works for our local hospice. She paved the way for John’s mom to get hospice care when needed, and then for his brother, Jim, as he was dying with lung cancer. Our friend had also assisted the neighbor’s husband.

Yes, it is a clearly “compounded” mess. As I mused about all of this, I could see that I have left messes (physical and emotional) for others to deal with. We all have.

And admittedly — even with all of our hard work this week — we have not been able to make all things right. Doing that will fall to some other at some other time.

Obviously, universal implications….

And, while I could not do a great job of everything, it is my intention to leave things better than I found them.

We can all do that.

More obviously universal implications….

Things are improving.

Evidenced by that before-and-after photo!