I often heard that saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” I was always skeptical, but recently I have found that I definitively disagree with it!
When we moved into our new home in fall of 2019 we had a wooden privacy fence built around the backyard. At the time, the gentleman who installed the fence told us to wait so many months before staining it. This spring I realized that we had probably had enough time elapse in order to get it done.
The problem was….. we could not find anyone who wanted to take on the task. I decided that I would do it- even if it took me a very long time.
I found some stain on sale at Ollie’s, enough to do the outside of the fence at least. I went to Lowe’s and wandered the brush aisle, selecting one that I thought would do the job. Then I waited for sunny days.
Over the past several weeks, between rainy intervals, I have been going out early mornings and late evenings to stain chunks of fence as time (and energy) allowed. At times, I will confess, I wished that I could pull a “Tom Sawyer” and convince someone or several someones to jump in and assist me, but alas…. I couldn’t.
Today as I put the last stroke of stain on the outer fence I was thinking about the several lessons that this had taught me…..
Lesson 1: Slow and steady really DOES win the race! I may not have been able to get the task done as efficiently as a professional work crew did, but I was able to accomplish what I set out to do- in my own time!
Lesson 2: I am not as much of a perfectionist as some people make me out to be. Some sections of the fence turned out a bit lighter than others due to the particular piece of wood or the amount of tint in a particular part of a can. The perfectionist in me wanted to go back over those lighter boards and touch them up, but the realist in me said, “You can’t see that from the road anyway. Let it be.”
Lesson 3: I am capable of doing much more than I would have thought. If someone had asked me to tackle a task like this on my own I would have laughed at them. Now, with Hubby on a walker and both kids out of the house, I find myself willing to tackle things that I never would have before. A few YouTube videos, some basic research, and wandering the aisles at the hardware store have convinced me that I am capable of doing far more than I would have thought! I am sure that some of that comes from watching my dad so many years. I learned a lot from him, without even realizing it at the time.
(As a side note: my NEXT task is to install a subway tile backsplash in my kitchen. My son thinks I am crazy. I think that this “old dog” is just going to learn many more lessons!)
Renewal and Refuge 