What Are You Putting Up With?

Last week’s newsletter addressed the face of change and how the pace of it can be much more gradual than reality TV portrays. The same applies to our realization that something in our lives needs to change. At times, it is a “slap in the face”; a wake-up call that something has got to change and change now. At other times, it is like the frog placed in a pot of warm water that is gradually heated until, lo and behold, the frog is cooked and he never realized what was happening.

I would prefer never to be the cooked frog, yet we can become so accustomed to the things that surround us that we are oblivious. Case in point – the kitchen renovations I mentioned last week. Yes, they occurred much more slowly than reality TV. What’s amazing is that they even occurred at all.

Yes, Ed and I had become a bit used to the surroundings of our home. Our eyes weren’t exactly blind, but we certainly turned a blind eye to the situation. While we longed for things to be different, we weren’t urged into action until we asked professionals to help assess our situation. First was the architect we hired to consult with us about remodeling or scraping our home. Her insight helped us to assess what we could accomplish with the home as is and what the cost would be to start again.

After digesting that information, we decided to do something about the area that bothered us most, the kitchen. We hired another expert, an interior designer, to help us see the possibilities. Wow! How illuminating that experience was! Her expertise extended far beyond colors for painting the kitchen. She had suggestions for our living and dining area that made an instantaneous difference.

Now, the rooms of the house flow together and our lives seem to flow more seamlessly, as well. The house fits us, it is comfortable. So much so that since we got our kitchen back, we’ve been home for dinner most nights – even though the new range has not yet arrived!

What are you putting up with? What can you not see that is holding you back? Professional input can shine a light on things you might rather ignore or be entirely unaware of. Would you want to limit yourself in that way?

Here’s to all the possibilities; seen and unseen, imagined and those not yet created!