Making Things New

Today more furniture was shifted around and parts of the room revealed that had been hidden for decades. Walls that have not been cleaned in an equal amount of time were washed down and made ready for painting on Thursday. The color, cleaned, is not so dingy or forlorn as it was and this is healing. We did not deliberately choose and use an ugly color when we painted forty years ago.

First we will prime. I say we because I can sit and roll the paint onto the lower sections of wall. I am pleased to recover some of my old ability to adapt and do things, even though I have had post-polio syndrome for over twenty years. M will do most of the painting as she has up until now.

This has been a remarkable summer of recovery and hope. It is also one of re-establishing connections as a friend from graduate school days in Chicago will be visiting this evening with pictures of his family as well as some from our shared time at International House.

Recently, I went web-surfing and looked at the renovations that have been made at I-House, as we called it. It is a beautiful old building that now looks much more comfortable to live in than it was thirty years ago. The one thing I do wish we would have had would have been DSL. The internet as we know it today did not exist then.

My new paper shredder was delivered while my friend M was washing the walls. I am eager to reduce the clutter and the paper in my life and house. I continue to sing "Don't hang on" as I wheel around from room to room. So I will take a break now to declutter.