Twenty-eight years ago, when Brian and I built our home, he left a significant hole in our bedroom wall.
The purpose of the hole was to install built-in drawers. So, it was a rather large hole.
Being a newlywed, I didn’t complain, even though I wasn’t crazy about the concept.
Over the years I learned to work and decorate around that hole in the wall. (Which never became built-in drawers). My current dresser would cover the hole so that is where it stayed.
That hole was so much part of the decor in our bedroom, I actually became accustomed to it.
Eventually, I even used it to my advantage.
Since it opened into a closet, I could move my dresser out of the way, crawl through the hole and easily store things in the closet.
At some point I took an old dresser and sat it inside of the hole. When I moved my main dresser out of the way, voila’, a whole new dresser.
About a year ago, we purchased a television for the bedroom.
My dresser was the only appropriate piece of furniture onto which the television could set. However, that meant exposing the hole.
Rationalizing it, I decided it didn’t really matter since no one could see the hole except us. The dresser was moved and the hole remained.
In another cleaning, organizing fit, I removed the top of the china cabinet.
Where to store it?
In the closet.
Best way to get it there?
Through the hole in the wall.
After much wrangling and maneuvering, it became apparent that the top of the china cabinet was not going to go through the hole.
Isaac, who was helping me, said, “Just a minute.”
And he disappeared.
When he came back this is what he said. “Dad is coming. He is going to make the hole a little bigger so we can get this thing in.”
I stood there gaping.
A hole I had worked around for TWENTY-EIGHT years was going to be ENLARGED to be able to get more stuff in the closet?
In what I can only describe as a moment of crystal-clear clarity, I knew that in the very near future the hole in the wall would no longer exist.
Even though it did not happen that day, I am happy to report that our bedroom no longer has a gaping hole in the wall.
Actually, now, because of one repair, the whole room is in the process of being transformed.
After the hole was repaired, the room was painted.
Shelves for the new television were built and installed.
Other improvements are in the works.
All because one fine day I said “Enough”.
After the repair was complete, I wondered, “Why was I ok with that hole for such a long time?”
The answer is probably, “It was just easier to work around it than deal with it.”
Before, we had a bedroom that was just mediocre.
Now, we have a bedroom in which we enjoy spending time.
After the whole ordeal was pretty much behind us, the hole in the wall became symbolic for me.
How often are there issues, both big and small, that I am willing to overlook just to avoid dealing with them?
Can issues become so much part of our life that we no longer even notice them?
How does one arrive at the point that one finally says, “Enough!”.
And even more important was realizing that after an issue is confronted, often times, when the dust settles, the situation, like the room, is a whole lot better.
There is a time and place for everything. Not every situation can or should be addressed alone.
Overlooking an issue, camouflaging it or even decorating it does not make it disappear.
Time has a way of slipping by.
If there is an issue that needs confronted, the first step is acknowledging that an issue exists (Yep, there is a hole in the wall!).
Only after that can the steps to correct it begin.
The sooner the better! Twenty-eight years goes fast!