Taking up the Rug

My fingertips were slightly sore and puffy this morning, like I had spent the weekend practicing guitar after a long hiatus. I had not. I am not that cool. Sorry. The less sexy story is that it turns out ripping up wall to wall carpet off a basement floor is rougher on the hands than I prepared for. Don’t worry, I caught on soon enough and grabbed gloves.

The smell of mold was disconcerting but it was the cat hair and the miserable experience of my son’s swollen eyes and stuffy noses from allergies that made the rug a non negotiable.

You know when you live somewhere for a while and you reach this threshold with how things are in your house? After 6 years of living here in annoyance with this allergy instigating covering nailed down to the floor, all it took was a 24 hour visit from my oldest son Rook-whose allergies are the worst- for my impulsivity to kick in and the carpet to come up. My only thought? “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”

Y’all. It was bad. That thing was a microbiome..um..petri dish of its own. Two teen boy bedrooms carpet with two cats who shed. Yeah. Uh huh. Gross. Bye.

When Rook called with his arrival ETA I proudly informed him of the progress made and also added an honest alert of “Welcome home, sorry you can’t sleep in your room because I got inspired”.

His response was an echo “Why didn’t we just do that when we first moved in? That was so dumb. Guess no one ever quite felt like it, wanted to deal with the hassle or wanted to have to take care of the stuff afterwards. It just always seemed like too much of a thing somehow.” I knew exactly what he meant.

It did feel like a thing. We would have had to move everyone out of those rooms for a few days or longer and be discombobulated. We would have had to do the work of the removal...all the steps. Then there would have been the deciding whether to reconfigure the spaces or not and then rebuild or at least paint. etc.

We would have had to take action. Yep. And then we would have had totally transformed spaces to enjoy that were a much better and updated fit for us now. My kids could have had healthier rooms to grow up in, better air to breathe and beautiful spaces they would’ve been proud of.

I lay there last night thinking “What were we really waiting for?”. For it to be easier? To want to? For none of that to be part of the deal? For a flood to force our hand? Why wasn’t health, wellbeing and awesomeness enough of a motivator?

How many other places do I get myself wrapped around the axle of procrastination or just a willingness to tolerate what’s fine or even unhealthy and gross for what could be wonderful?

What could be more wonderful? Let that sink in.

More satisfying? More really you? Less messy? Less hectic? More of the beautiful expression to the world of who you are, what you love, what lights you up and how you see life?

What rug in your life are you ready to take up now and put by the curb?

Love and light always.