Painting The Walls- Surprising Discoveries

Let’s paint

One dark, winter night, I found myself refurbishing and decorating a room. A good few hours were to be spent alone, painting the walls and making some suprising discoveries. Here’s what I learnt:

You have to do it yourself.

Lone ranger, you can’t and won’t always have help. Don’t rely on people. Sure it’s nice to have help, but you know, people are busy. So sometimes you just have to do it by yourself. A little help always eases the task. But when you’re hit with a mammoth task with no extra hands, you just have to go indie, suck it up and give it your all. Besides, it can be fun. So next time you find yourself without extra hands to help, trust The One and believe you can. And perhaps it’s better not to ask others, that way, you’ll develop independence and don’t become needy or over reliant on others.

Keep on climbing.

I had to climb the ladder to reach heights. The ladder gave me a boost to fill the top of the walls with a fresh coat of paint. The job was back and forth, ascend, descend, and repeat. It was a task, a test of stamina and endurance. Yes I broke a sweat, and I appreciate that The One gave me the opportunity to do this. Not long before, I had been struck by illness, weak and drained, alone. That was a setback indeed, but I was determined to get the task done now that I had recovered, Alhamdulillah.

Keep it rolling.

As much as being a good bit of cardio and heart-rate raiser, rolling the paint onto the walls taught me that when times are tough, you can’t give up. Have the end goal in mind. The final destination, the final result. Think of the satisfaction when you finally achieve the results. Your arms will ache, your back will hurt, but you can’t give up till you achieve your goal. Even if it takes a few days, or some time, keep on at it.

Therapeutic.-Enjoy the moment

While I had the goal in mind, I had to aprpeciate and enjoy the moment. Be grateful to Allah for the chance to chill and do this little piece of art, aside from the hectic tedious regular tasks I do on a daily basis. I found myself rushing to complete it, it was cold, dark, and getting late, past bedtime for sure. As I carefully painted around the light switch socket, I reflected for a moment and felt happy, calm and peaceful. I felt, “you know what, this is kind of fun!” Sometimes it’s all in the little details of life, the little moments. You need to appreciate them or else you’ll miss the opportunity if you’re always buried in achieving your big dreams. Slow down a little and just be grateful for every moment, make it all for The One .

Alhamdulillah for life.

Erase your mistakes.

Sometimes you see an imperfection and you have to paint over it again, much like in life, sometimes you’ll make mistakes. Just start afresh, with a new coat of paint. Blank canvas, baby. Make tawbah. Rectify the wrongs. And get back up again.

Look at the bigger picture.

Over-scrutinising the small errors can stop you appreciating the bigger picture. The wall looks great, never mind that little strip at the top that looks brighter than the rest. Likewise, accept yourself, flaws and all. Work on editing the bad and enhancing the good, work with what you’ve got. That’s where I’m at now…bigger, brighter picture, and hopefully an even brighter future inshaAllah.

Appreciate the results.

Be grateful and give yourself a little credit too. Enjoy the journey and soon, we will enjoy the destination, by the will of Allah.

And yes I finished painting, it looks like a modern masterpiece. MashaaAllah.

On to the next job.

Thanks for reading!

Only For The One.