Patches In the Drywall

My house is essentially a one story house, it just all happens to be on the second story.  The only room (if you can all it a room) on the the ground level is an entry way, foyer, if you will.  So everyone that enters or exits my home, has to go up my wide, curved staircase.  Though we've only lived in our home since November (less that a year), we've painted that staircase at least three times.  Once, because the previous owner, although they picked a very nonthreatening shade of beige, painted the whole house with flat paint.  I have little kids. Enough said, right?  So, we painted once (or maybe twice) because we couldn't stand the dirty hand prints running down the walls.
Another time we painted, because we had a leak in our water heater and the small square that was cut out, turned into a bigger square, into a bigger square, until the source of the leak was found.  That hole was patched, textured and painted...again.
Most recently, my four year old had a little friend over, and we happened to be watching my parents dog as well.  So 2 preschoolers and 2 dogs, good match.  The girls decided they were going to put leashes on the dogs and take them for walks around the house. So fun.  I figured this out because my Dad's dog came running in the kitchen and proceeded to squeeze into the space between the counter and myself, where I was standing making lunch, clearly hiding from the super fun walk the girls wanted to take her on.

Hula, my Dad's dog hiding from the girls.

This is my big, hairy, and a little stupid (don't tell him), but totally sweet and wonderful dog, with our littlest.

All the while, my dog (my 75 pound dog), WAS on a leash, in the house, being "walked" by two 40lb little girls.
IN THE HOUSE.
Oh boy.  So naturally, I let the girls know hat they could not have the dog on a lease in the house, because he's just too big for that.  I took the leash off the dog and set it on the table.
Maybe four minutes later I heard LOUD banging and crashing and tumbling coming from the other room.
What had happened was my daughter decided that since she could not take the dog for a "walk" in the house,she would use the leash to tie him to a chair.
Then the doorbell rang.
The dog bolted down the stairs to greet whomever was at the door, the chair dragging behind him, banging into the walls as it crashed down the stairwell to the entryway. Aurora was crying; it was pandemonium.

Here's the stairs.
So, it's hard to see but this is pre-pait, post-patch & texture.

Luckily, the only thing harmed during the commotion, were my walls. They were left with scratches and gouges, that needed to be patched and re-textured, and then you guessed it, painted, and now, you'd never know because paint covers a multitude of sins.
It got me thinking about when people say, "If walls could talk."  What would my walls say?  From the outside, the walls look the same as the day we moved in.  But if we could look behind the walls, we would see places where damaged drywall has been cut out, then replaced & taped up.  There are holes that have been filled with Spackle, and then of course all those dirty hand prints.
The process of fixing drywall takes time, you have to let things dry before you can move on to the next step. So, people saw our walls in various stages of construction, but I have to say, I never cared.  In fact, I sort of liked people to walk in to our home and know, without a doubt, that it was a "work in progress."
It was a great conversation starter and got me thinking about the other things in life we just "paint" over?

No one escapes this life without a few bumps and bruises along the way.   Life can be messy, and some of those messes leave scars.  Not necessarily scars that are visible on the outside, but the ones that shape us and make us who we are today.  Some of the scars are deep, like the water heater leak, where the damage had to be cut out and replaced with new.  Some of the scars are gouges or holes that need to be patched, but end up being a funny story after the smoke settles and you're sure everyone is OK.  Then there's the little scrapes and bruises of life that we all work though everyday, like the dirty hand prints that can just be painted over.  

Elisabeth Kubler Ross said, "The most beautiful people we have known are those that have know defeat, know suffering, know struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.  These persons have an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.  Beautiful people do not just happen."

I have found that the most interesting people are not the ones who seem as though they don't have any scars.  In addition, the peoples homes who I feel most comfortable in, are not the ones that look like no one lives in them.  It's the opposite.  The people I love, are flawed.  The homes I feel  most comfortable in, are LIVED IN.
We're all a work in progress.  Don't paint over your scars, tell the stories of how you got them.
"He has made everything beautiful in it's time." Ecclesiastes 3:11