Several weeks ago, I reupholstered some kitchen chairs {HERE}. Before a project, I often don't estimate correctly how long it will actually take, and how tedious and hard it might be. When it comes to brains and skill, this was not a difficult project. The steps are simple. It's the actual doing and finishing that takes endurance, muscles, and serious patience.
Next time I reupholster, I will realize that taking out staples will definitely be my least favorite part of the project. I still have some battle wounds from that flat head screw driver. The worst of all was going around those blasted corners! I just wanted to rip the old fabric up, but it wouldn't come.
Every time I tried to get the old fabric free from those corner staples, I would get stuck. At the beginning of the project, I said a few naughty words as I attacked the staples with that screw driver. The only thing that resulted was a stab in the hand, and anger at the staples. I tried so hard to get even ONE staple out from those corners. No luck.
After I calmed down, I realized that if I stuck that flat head screw driver into a few staples, I could get a little part of one to budge slightly. If I worked on it for a while, it would budge a little more. Eventually I could get one staple out. I'd repeat the process on the next staple. Within a few minutes, I could pull the staples out pretty quickly. Then, I would reach my little goal of a fabric free corner- wahoo!!! Of course, I went on to the next corner, and I repeated the process over again.
As I pulled out staples, I had a looooong time to think. My big goal was to reupholster those chairs, but there were a bunch of mini steps to get to that point. The huge block to achieving this goal were the stinkin' corners on the chairs. I thought about things in life that I want to accomplish. Sometimes we expect things to just happen. Or to happen with no effort or without difficulty. That's not the design of life. Worthwhile goals take lots of mini goals and also time, and patience.
When we've worked hard, things should go our way! Unfortunately {Or maybe fortunately}, they don't always. Just like the stubborn staples held on to that fabric on the the corners of the chairs, there are times in life when we just seem stuck, no matter how hard we try.
It's when I was stuck on these chairs that I learned the real lesson, and it's often the same way in real life. Even when our desired result doesn't happen WHEN we want it to, there is ALWAYS something that we can do, no matter how small. Then we find a little more that we can do. Eventually, as we metaphorically pull out those little tough staples of life, one by one, we'll solve our problems. We'll meet our goals.
Things aren't always seamless, and problems aren't always easily solved. Often, goals are not reached, and problems are not solved at once. The design of life is not to just breeze through. It takes time, work, and one small thing at a time.
XO,
Nancy
