Stripping Away The Layers

As I sanded away the remnants of old stain and wear from the table I am refinishing yesterday, it occurred to me that someone purchased this as the latest in home decor.  Someone saw this table, when it was brand new, and thought that it was the perfect piece for their home.  Time passed, the table was used and scratched, the shine began to fade and the finish became old and mottled.  The latest and greatest home decor item became the latest addition to the inventory of a local non-profit.  Now I am taking this piece back to the wood foundation.  The design is great, the wood is beautiful, but the shine was gone.  

This process happens to us over our lifetime as well.  We change our wardrobes because the clothes we wore when we were twenty or thirty no longer suite us when we are forty.  We change our location because our apartment is too small, our house too big or our job has taken us to a new location.  We change our hair, our jobs, our cars and even our friends.  We constantly change yet we don't seem to be very adept at it.  

For most people change is very difficult and they do not seek it but instead wait until life forces them into changing.  For some of us change is necessary.  My son would sigh when he walked in the door and saw furniture sitting in the middle of the floor because I was waiting for him so that I could move that one piece that I could not handle by myself.  I have always been one of those who moves their favorite chair to get a new view on the world.  I change the entire room when I need to find a new direction.  I try new colors, build something I have never built, tackle a project I have never done or research the answer to a home improvement problem.  I NEED change and if it doesn't come to me I go looking for it.  I never want to stop learning, growing or challenging myself and I try to pass on that sense of adventure to all who know me.  

When we feel stagnant, when we have lost our shine and our life has become mottled, we need to be renewed.  If we take on the challenge of stripping away the old layers that don't work anymore, if we sand away the rough edges we can get back to the beautiful foundation of ourselves.  From there the possibilities are endless.  We all go through this in our life whether by choice or by force from lifes circumstances.  How well we adjust, how positive our view on what could be coming next, determines how well we will shine when the process is finished.  

---