This weekend, my wife, her parents and I spent the weekend painting the interior of our home, and I learned a lot doing so. But possibly the biggest lesson I learned was that I don’t like painting. I mean, the painting is fine, and even kind of mentally relaxing, but the set up and preparation to paint, that’s another story.
There’s this lame saying that everyone knows by heart, “Good things take time.” It was one of those sayings that your parents used to tell you to be patient for things, and it was a saying I kept hearing in my own head as I put yet another line of painters tape down across a wall fixture or baseboard. It was just as mentally taxing as it was physically, and the entire time, I was trying to come up with a better saying to focus on rather than, “Good things take time.”
We were listening to music while we were coloring the walls, and I heard the lyrics to Elton John’s, ‘Rocket Man’ telling me, “It’s going to be a long, long time.” I thought those were fitting words, too, but still not quite what I was looking for to describe what I was feeling; however it was right after that track that another quote came to mind, one that fit the summation of my painting experience.
“Trust the Process”
Another cliche, sure. But a more fitting one, yes. I was in a process. The process of cleaning everything only to make it dirty. The process of moving everything into a cluttered heap to ensure it didn’t get paint on it. The process of moving that heap to a new location to paint where it once stood. The process of taping, newspapering, laying out papers, mixing paint and adding layer after layer of new color to every square inch of a room. The true definition of a process.
But sometimes that’s all life is, a series of processes. One’s we go through day-today, both comfortable and uncomfortable. Some old, and some new (typically the uncomfortable ones), but it’s what makes up life. And that’s a process I don’t ever want to get bored with.
-Cliff
Cliff’s Note: Cliches are okay, sometimes.