The Low Place Consulting

3/15/23

As a young girl, my Dad used to teach me lessons while we were “doing”. Most of my memories are of us in the garden, painting or organizing. He would start by saying something about the weeds we were pulling and how for them not to take over your garden you had to get all of the roots out. Then he would correlate it to something unwanted in your life. In order to effectively remove it you would need to get to the source of it, understand it and take steps to eradicate it. 

The way he taught really stuck with me, so much that I see lessons in the common, all of the time. I’d like to think it’s my superpower.  

The Jewish and Christian cultures call this way of teaching “a parable”. The Oxford dictionary defines a parable as “a simple story to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.”

I’ve been drawing some parallels to the work we’ve been doing in our “day job” and the work I am doing in my story and writing some parables of my own. 

In a company that my wife and I own, we focus on serving others in a practical way and meeting our clients where they are in their story. Our collective life experiences and education has broadened our service base to include anything from elder care, tutoring, to home repairs (and everything in between). 

Clients will often ask for something to be restored. This can be anything from a garden, a piece of furniture or a room. Their hopes are to have a brand new, tip top functioning item, now! 

In 2019 a trusted friend of mine (and mental health professional) recommended a new therapist for the work I was wanting to continue in my story. I was anxious, depressed, living in fight or flight mode and I was on a fast track to destruction. I desperately needed relief now!  I wanted my new life to start right away. I wanted my heart’s restoration to be wrapped up in a big reveal where Chip and Jo asked if I was “ready to see my fixer upper”? 

In this high paced, instant gratification and get results now society, we don’t place enough value and focus on the slow, unexpected and unpredictable process of restoration. 

It’s so easy to get hyped for what it can be and then disappointed when it’s not. We put timelines on our stories. I should have been ________ by now, I can’t believe ________still triggers me. 

After a few sessions with my therapist we managed to regulate the heightened emotions that brought me in the door. Then from that point I realized that the hard work was just starting. It took my entire timeline until now and the timelines of the ones that came before me to arrive at how I saw myself and how I was experiencing my story. This is not a quick flip! 

Currently, I am restoring a hundred year old hope chest for a client. It’s been in my possession for a year and a half…Every step of this restoration has uncovered something new to deal with, it’s been the most brutiful (beautiful and brutal) process. 

Just last month, we were working on a bathroom renovation/restoration. We spent countless hours delicately demoing the vanity so as not to damage the historic wall tile, only to find the plumbing was so brittle it disintegrated in our hands.  

When you make the brave choice to bring restoration to your experience, know that unexpected things will come up. You might break someone’s water main while landscaping (ok, this was early on in our company and we did repair it 😀) . 

You might uncover a repressed memory or discover an unhealthy pattern that has served you up until now. My prayer and hope is that we can look at the unexpected as part of the restoration process. It’s not a nuisance or an inconvenience, it’s our next step. Welcome it and thank it for how it has served us thus far.  

My prayer is that we can offer ourselves grace and nurture as we move through it, but my most earnest wish and hope is that we can see that the entire thing is part of it…..restoration is the process, all of it not the product. Let’s keep reminding ourselves ok? 

Love, 

Rebecca