Done Things

Some of the things on the following list have been waiting in to-do limbo for decades! But this year, it seemed as though the Christmas gift my Heavenly Father choose to give me was a handyman who was in between jobs and needed some work.

I love salvage—furniture parts that have been discarded, or old window frames to hang in interesting formations. Decades ago (I’m ashamed to admit) I saved four hand-carved wooden legs from some discarded upholstered chairs—the memory of what they looked like has long slipped my mind.

My friend, Bruce Harro, took the curved legs and attached one set to the top corners of the plain frame over a bureau in our bedroom. The other two he mounted on wooden ovals to be used as tie backs for the curtains in that same room. Needless to say, I was delighted and since I had a little extra money and he had a little extra time, we proceeded down the list of abandoned tasks that no one ever has time to get to.

How about the chime I bought to replace our existing doorbell? When I am upstairs, I can’t hear the front door bell and people either leave, thinking I’m hiding (after all, there is a car in the garage), or not at home, or they end up pounding on the door in an undignified fashion. I have an ordinary ding-dong sound downstairs, but upstairs where David and I both can hear it, we now have a Windsor chime: ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong. This is so amazing that I have friends and family stand at the bottom of the stairs while I run out to ring the bell!

So, the list goes on. Bruce got the light in the attic working. Then, he connected another box so I can really see what I am working on up there. He replaced the broken light in the furnace room—no more fumbling in the dark there either. The hall tile that has been broken for a decade or more, the two in the bathroom mounted as a line of molding that fell off two summers back, and two cold frames made from salvage lumber leftover from the raised beds in the front garden (two summers ago) and the window frames for the boxes that I salvaged from the roadside, now cleaned and re-glazed.

I feel like a wealthy woman—a wealthy, wealthy woman. Everywhere I looked this Christmas, there were things done. Things done—what a joyous celebration these accomplishments worked in my heart. Things done!

For people who have the funds to hire repairs done, or for those who have a handy spouse in the family, this may seem silly. But undone things gnaw at me. They worry me with undoneness,and I am most grateful to God (and to Bruce Harro) for a feeling of satisfaction, completeness, and of a whole list being finished. Drop past sometime. I’ll give you a tour. But first, just stand by the stairwell while I ring the doorbell. Listen.

I spy God!