{"id":59,"date":"2005-12-02T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2005\/12\/painting-the-stairs.html"},"modified":"2005-12-02T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-12-02T12:00:00","slug":"painting-the-stairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2005\/12\/painting-the-stairs.html","title":{"rendered":"Painting the Stairs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\" Here is picture of the staircase that leads from our front downstairs hallway to the second level of the house. I painted the rises of the stairs in alternating patterns with sample-sized jars of Benjamin Moore paint <\/a> last August while our two Chatterings (ages nine and eleven) were away with a friend in the country. Painting the interiors of the places I’ve lived in has been an interest of mine since the day my mother demanded I clean my closet and, hours later found 15-year-old Chattering Me painting the words “ART IS POWER” in large letters on one of the closet walls. In non-washable acrylics, no less. When I was out of college, I painted a thick, dramatic, mustard-colored stripe across one wall of my living room. This accentuated my writing desk, my career being the most important thing in the world to me at that time.<\/p>\n

This recent work on the stairs matches the rest of our old house pretty nicely. And I have a fantasy of continuing the work by painting inspirational phrases and fragments of poetry we all like onto the Arts and Crafts woodwork that travels all through the house. I know, I know; it might be too much of a good thing. <\/p>\n

But I wanted to show you these stairs because, well, there’s a lesson in them. Looking back, I feel that I could have painted other places in my lifetime, made some nice statements, but I just didn’t have the faith or the courage. I’d talk myself out of big plans. And now that I’m older, I see that, well it’s now or never. Either I get the stairs of my dreams or forever live wondering what might have been.<\/p>\n

I almost lost heart on this project, and upon completing the first stair, nervously called Mr. Chattering in to see if I should drop the whole idea. <\/p>\n

“I think I’m trying too hard to make it perfect,” I said to him, glumly, paintbrush still in hand.<\/p>\n

And he said, “Oh, don’t make it perfect. I love it! If you make it too perfect, it won’t be any good.”<\/p>\n

God love him. That helped. So on I went, painting fleur-de-lis freehand, stenciling the checkerboard pattern, wildly adding new colors as I went along. <\/p>\n

I still have some stairs to go, and it’s far from perfect, but I’m pleased.<\/p>\n

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