One Stroke at a Time · The Sticky Note Society

One Stroke at a Time

This weekend I picked up a paintbrush again. My house is starting to glow a little brighter — not because the walls changed color, but because something inside me softened with every stroke.

My mom passed in 2017.. her birthday was yesterday… My anniversary and Thanksgiving were on Thanksgiving this year… sometimes hers falls then, too..

She used to paint all the time. It was her way of making ordinary spaces feel loved. When times were tight, a little fresh color on the walls would make things feel new….special.. I would come home from school to a new room color and different colored baseboards.. or a closet redone into a reading nook… I didn’t realize until recently how much of her is still in me — in the colors I choose, in the way I stand back and breathe between strokes, in the quiet pride when something finally looks finished. Deep down, we love the ability to control the outcome, where we can’t, so often…

And somewhere in the process of painting this week…,I remembered something important:

You don’t heal all at once.

You don’t rebuild all at once.

You don’t reinvent yourself all at once.

You do it the same way you paint a room…

one careful, intentional stroke at a time.

Some days it’s about taking control of the little things — the things you can shape with your own hands. Some days it’s about letting go of everything you can’t. And in the middle of all of it, the only thing that actually matters is this:

✨ Give yourself grace for the part you’re in.

✨ You’re allowed to pause.

✨ You’re allowed to begin again.

✨ You’re allowed to take your healing in small strokes.

If today feels heavy, slow, or “meh,” just remember…

even one stroke changes the wall.

And you’re doing better than you think.

🩵 Amber - The Sticky Note Society

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