“Don’t touch the walls!” we lovingly reminded our kids (who insistently touched the walls of our home for no apparent reason).
Two years ago, our home was a new build. Brand new construction. Fresh paint. Floors unscathed. All of it was beautiful, and we absolutely could not wait to move our family into the space we spent so much time dreaming up and planning for.
“Our rooms are going to stay clean!” one child would assure, and the other would nod in agreement.
And then we moved in and almost instantly, handprints appeared on our Sherwin Williams Alabaster white walls. All three kids would run down their long hallway, turn the corner, and apparently (one would assume,) they were going at such high speeds they had to hold on to the walls to keep themselves steady! There are scratches on the wood floors from six hundred scooter board trips from one end of the house to the other. Hot Wheels tracks hide behind doors our toddler thought we wouldn’t notice.
Two years in, and I see handprints and scratches and dents everywhere I look. (If I’m being completely honest, some of those are from my own doing.) The newness of our home has faded alongside the smell of fresh paint. It doesn’t feel “new” anymore. It feels lived in… comfortable… “used to.” And on one hand, it makes me sad to see the blemishes because I wanted the New to last forever, but on the other hand, this is the stuff we look at when we’re old and smile about, right?
This week, I’ve been thinking about how the start of a year feels a lot like having a new house. It feels tidy and unblemished, a clean slate full of excitement. But after some time, the shine wears off. You forget the goals you set at the start, or you lose the motivation to see them through. Your house gets messy, and no one remembers the promises they made to themselves about how well they were going to take care of their space. It’s human nature.
I’ve been thinking that maybe the trick isn’t trying to keep everything pristine but learning to love the story unfolding in the mess.
The handprints mean our kids are growing. The scratches mean life is happening. And the “used to” feeling? That means we’ve settled into something good.
So, if the new-year shine fades a little faster than you hoped, let me be the voice that reminds you that you can reset the room, rewrite the goal, and pursue it again… just like I’m doing at home. And if someone leaves a handprint along the way? Well, maybe that’s part of the story, too.
-by Destini McPherson
