Today was a great day for me, I was able to help tear down walls. Living room walls coming down. A hammer & pry bar became my best friends. The hammer I was using was a Christmas gift from a long time ago. Memories, they can come back like a warm blanket or a storm. This memory was a warm blanket and I enjoyed being wrapped in it while I worked. Once upon a time I wasn’t so good with a hammer and because of my skills received a Christmas gift: a hammer with a hole drilled through the end with a wrist strap attached. Makes you scared to know why I received THAT gift doesn’t it!? YEARS AGO (back in the 1900’s) I was helping a dear friend and her dad do some work in their barn. I was working with her dad, whom I affectionately called “Fast Marvin”, when the hammer flew out of my hand. I tried to pretend it didn’t happen, retrieve it quickly and get back to work when I hear “I saw that kid”. If he could see me tearing plaster off of lathe with the hammer he made for me, he’d smile and say “Good job kid” while keeping his distance. His gift of time invested in me I still treasure.
Tearing the plaster off today also required pulling LAYERS of wallpaper off the walls. There must have been 6-7 layers. My mind goes to wondering what life was like in the house when those layers went on. I remember my own Mother putting wallpaper up in our home as a kid. Those long sheets of pretty colored patterns and bucket of glue. The look of focused attention on my mother’s face. Isn’t it refreshing to give yourself to a task and be satisfied when it is done.
