Painting fences

I recently visited a local paint store to pick up a paint sample for my wife. While waiting, I walked around the store, looking at all the new, fancy paint supplies they sell.

I’m a sentimental guy, but usually, it isn’t paint scrapers and rollers that hit me hard. But that day, they did.

When I was 16, I started my first business. Over two summers, my brother, two friends, and I washed, scraped, primed, and painted two miles of fencing along our subdivision. It was backbreaking work for a bunch of teenagers – long, hot, tedious days. I remember frequent trips to the local paint store for supplies and advice.

Work days couldn’t end soon enough those summers; we just wanted to be kids and take our newly minted driver’s licenses out on the road.

Now, of course, I look back on the great memories I made. I spent more time sitting and talking with my three best friends those days than I ever did during school or on weekends, and certainly more so than today. We talked about girls, we talked about sports, we joked, and we learned a lot – about hard work and about each other.

Now, in this paint store on a rainy afternoon, I was transported back to what we had back then. I wish I’d been more grateful for what was right in front of me.

As I drove home, that got me considering other seasons of my life. Come to think of it, each grade, each summer, each job, and each stepping stone is something I’d take back, if just for a moment.

On my desk, I have a note that reads, “Someday, you will give up anything to have this day back. Don’t miss it.”

Too often, I miss it. Whatever I feel about the season I’m in right now, it will one day be “the good old days” for which I long. Maybe it’s time I start enjoying these good days now.