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Great Friends and Grape Vines

June, 2006

By Trish Berg

I tend to be an overconfident person, especially when it comes to skills I don’t necessarily have, but assume I can learn. I jump into projects, hoping for the best, and sometimes realizing the worst. Most of my family and friends know this about me, and thankfully they accept me as is, shortcomings and all.

Last year, in order to save money, I decided I could hand paint a border around my bedroom walls, even though I don’t have an artistic bone in my body. In fact, art and crafts make me quiver and stick figures are a challenge for me. Despite reality being against me, I went ahead and bought brown and blue paint and two different sized paint brushes. The plan was to create rustic grape vines with blue berries around the top of my bedroom walls, draped elegantly around my windows. In my mind, it looked beautiful. In reality, I had no idea what I was doing.

But that has never stopped me before. So I started out in a corner, and painted brown stem like things spiking out in every direction. When it looked too sticky, I feathered it out a bit. When it looked even worse, I convinced myself that once the entire room was done, it would look great.

After several hours of hard work and sore elbows, I stood back and realized that our entire bedroom now looked like a brown jungle with dead vines hanging everywhere. When my husband came home, all he could do was politely chuckle. I told him I knew how bad it was, and assured him that I had plans to re-paint over the mess as soon as I had the time. But with writing deadlines looming and four kids tugging at my sleeves, who knew when that would be.

That was almost a year ago, and we had adjusted to our dead jungle décor. It became kind of a landmark for us, a tourist attraction that we had showed several close friends when they were over for a visit. It was always good for a laugh, anyway.

Then I discovered that even though my big ideas sometimes turn into huge disasters, I have even bigger friends who see beyond all my faults, and make up for all of my shortcomings with their love.

Last month, I came home from a week long vacation in Florida, exhausted from the twenty hour bus ride, and opened my bedroom door to one of the biggest surprises I have ever had. There were no more dead grape vines on my walls, no more brown jungle. Instead, I was greeted by the serenity of soft, sky blue walls, rearranged furniture, new bedding, and new decorations. It didn’t even look like my old bedroom. It looked beautiful.

That’s when my kids came running over and said, “Piccolinos did it!” Mark and Barb Piccolino are dear friends of ours from Pittsburgh, and they had called Mike before we left to ask if they could surprise me with a new bedroom.

I stood in the doorway with my mouth hanging open for at least five minutes as it began to sink in. They had spent hours driving to Ohio. Hours taping. Hours painting, shopping, and re-decorating our bedroom. The enormity of their gift still overwhelms me to this day, and I am in awe of their generosity.

I do tend to jump into life hoping for the best, sometimes realizing the worst. But I also have been blessed with some of the greatest friends in the world that paint over more than grapevines. They paint over all of my shortcomings with their love, caring, and generosity. And their friendship makes my life more beautiful than anything I could create on my own.

Trish would love to hear from you at www.trishberg.com, or e-mail trishberg @ trishberg.com.

© Trish Berg, 2006-
Trish Berg is author to The Great American Supper Swap, and Rattled - Surviving Your Baby's First Year without Losing Your Cool! She has been a guest ABC World News Tonight, Midday Connection, and The Harvest Show.
She is an internationally known speaker for ministries such as MOPS, Hearts at Home, and in Australia on Parenting Seminars Online. She has written for Today's Christian Woman, MOMSense, CBN.com and P31 WOMAN.
For more information, check out www.TrishBerg.com

Read Trish's Simplifying Motherhood column at C'Moms

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Great Friends and Grape Vines