It's not you...it's the wall.

So Brent and I have been painting. And painting. And painting. I love to paint. I need to get that out right away so you don't think I am complaining. It's one of those things you can do in your house that completely changes the look and feel of a room for not a ton of money and really not a ton of time. So on to the story...

We painted the living room a dark gray and the bedroom a dark brown. As we put the first coat on there were some uneven patches, as there always are. We told each other, oh no worries, that's what the second coat is for. So the second coat went on and in the bedroom things looked pretty good. But in the living room it was patchy looking still. So we thought...hmmm...what's up with that?

We let the paint dry for a few extra days thinking that maybe it was the humidity in the air keeping parts wet-ish and uneven. Nope, even dry there were still parts of the wall that were shiny and parts that were flat. We decided that probably what happened is that I put the second coat on in the bedroom solo and we worked together in the living room so it was probably either that we missed some spots in our over lap or because we have different techniques and use different amounts of arm strength it led to an uneven application of the paint. Yes, we really did think about it that much, does this surprise you?

I decided before we put a third coat on the walls I would try to spot correct a few places with a brush. It just made it stand out more. So a third coat was the answer. And a third coat put on by just one of us. As I mentioned before, I love to paint, so I did it. And as I painted this morning, being super careful to make sure I applied paint evenly with the roller, then brushed it out to make sure it wasn't too thick any where and that everything was covered I realized, it's not us. It's the wall. The house has settled and the walls aren't perfectly straight. So the semigloss paint is picking up the light differently in spots. Some places it's very shiny, some it's very flat. And it doesn't matter how many times I paint over it, it's going to look like that.

So of course that got me thinking about life...isn't that the way we always act? We do something and it doesn't work out and we think...hmmm...what did I do wrong? How can I change what I am doing to fix this? But you know what? Sometimes it isn't you...it's the wall. There are times in life that no matter how much you want something to work out it isn't going to. No matter what you shift and change and try again it's just not going to go your way. And that's okay. It's just the wall. It's not straight. It's going it's own way and you can't change that. So before you beat yourself up when something just isn't going the way you think it should...before you keep changing what you are doing to try and make it work...before you drive yourself crazy...ask yourself...Is it me or is it the wall? The answer might surprise you.