There's a hole in my living room ceiling now.
Right where a smooth, clean, white ceiling used to be.
It's par for the course this year, honestly. I should have expected it.
I'm grateful it wasn't worse, just a few gallons of water coming through my son's bedroom floor when his fish tank blew a seal.
We were home when the ceiling started dripping, so we were able to clean it up and stop it before the damage got too extensive.
We dried out the floors upstairs as best we could and opened the ceiling up to dry out the boards inside.
The drywall will get repaired today and then we'll repaint the ceiling and it will be almost like it never happened.
But for a few days, that hole is gaping at me.
Even when we close it up, I'll still know it was there.
That's the thing about holes, in our homes and in our lives. You can patch them up, but it's never exactly the same.
The damage has been done.
Sometimes we intentionally make holes in our lives.
Like when we plant new trees.
Or put in a firepit
Or break ground to add a swimming pool
Or cut someone loose who was bringing us down
Those holes are constructive, they add value, they even bring us joy.
But then there are times when the holes are unexpected.
Like when someone we love leaves us too soon.
Or we lose a career that gave us purpose
Or we are cut off from the human connection we need so badly
Or a fish tank breaks a seal and water pours through the ceiling
It's such a roller coaster, this journey we are on.
Some days it can mess with our heads so much that we just want to crawl in a hole and hide for awhile.
And that's okay. As long as we come back out of it.
Holes aren't intended to stay open for long. If they are, they become trip hazards and that's exactly where we wind up. Face down in them.
I had to stop the roller coaster this weekend for awhile.
I spent the entire day yesterday losing myself in a Netflix series that took me completely away from my real life.
That was the hole I crawled in. Tucked under a blanket, eyes glued to the TV.
I needed the break.
A break from the worry and the fear and the uncertainty.
And the hole in my ceiling.
Take your break if you need it too, friends. Rest and recharge. Give yourself grace.
You'll fill in those holes in time.
We all will.
Comentarios