I’ve been doing a lot of Do It Yourself improvements around my house lately. Tiling the bathroom, putting in a vanity and sink top. With this comes a lot of sanding and painting of walls, baseboards, and trim. Everybody paints a little differently. 
I prefer to look at the surface, find the problem, fill, sand, prime, and then paint. Sometimes it is just plain easier to paint without preparing the surface. I have learned from experience that this is not the way to freshen up your walls.
In life we all have bumps, scars, and dents from our past. It seems for me the easiest way to deal with these “imperfections” is to roll over them. No matter how much I tell myself that I have dealt with the issue, smoothing over doesn’t hide the holes. The hole is still there, just a little brighter to look at. For me I have to dig deeper than that. That spot has to 
be repaired with the right type of material.
My life is a DIY project in the making. I have to look at my problems and apply the correct remedy, find the right fix, and then fill it. When it comes down to it, the painting is really just a result of a lot of hard work to make the valleys and peaks even.
The painting is the easy part. Filling those holes 
that haunt me is the real work.
I am systematic, so I try to go at it one thing at a time. I first identify the problem. Where is it, what is it, what will it take to repair it. This can be very hard to do. Then I verify the problem is something
that I can tackle myself without professional help. 
I then get out my tool bag and decide, what can fix this crack? What will it take? Prayer, meditation, mindfulness, journaling, or talking? What is the correct filler? Then I use the tool for as long as it takes to feel better about the result. Once I have done all this, then I can start to make the outside layer look better.
What happens is before I even start to finish up my painting, the whole thing is already so much better, It almost seems as if I just have some touch up to do. This might mean I am feeling better and I want to dress better, put on some makeup and I have a smile on my face. What a difference it makes when the job is done right. I must remember to quit painting over the problem and actually admit that it has to be worked on first.
