"stay awhile"

Emily made this sign for me.
It has been hanging in my family room a couple of months.
Waiting to be heeded.
Summer is a busy, busy time.
Staying awhile in any one place is a challenge.

That changed this week. 
I have visited and stayed awhile.
I have had friends come to visit and stay awhile.
I met a friend in the aisle at KMart and we stayed a while there.
A friend took me to breakfast at Shoney's and we stayed awhile.

I hope it changed in another way.
A lady I know well stopped by today.
She knows she is always welcome but she hasn't been here in awhile.
I like it when she comes.
She gets things done.

Today she replaced my outdoor lights.

There wasn't anything wrong with the old ones but I discovered you could buy ones with a GFI outlet built in. After I had the others installed. I've waited three years or so to purchase the new ones. They have sat on my bar for a week. I was sure they'd be there another week. Or longer. I was contemplating my options of who to hire to put them up for me.

She replaced the pneumatic door closer for a storm door. The replacement has been sitting on a bookshelf, forlornly waiting for two years or more.

She put these little plastic caps over the screw heads in the new exterior door in the library. Well, it is not so new anymore. It was hung almost four years ago. Talk about feeling forgotten!

She fixed this sad set of mini blinds. They have been getting progressively less usable for at least a year. I thought they needed replaced. She wanted to try to repair them first.

I hope the woman I recognized today, the me that used to tackle projects instead of ignoring them, I hope that lady stays a while. It was encouraging, empowering, wonderful, liberating, nice to feel that part of myself again.* 
(If she's around next week maybe the blinds in the family room I've been meaning to clean for three years will get the attention they need.)

*I am not beating myself up over jobs that haven't gotten done in what used to be a "timely manner". All things considered I think I've been doing well. Today as I accomplished one nagging task after another I realized how good it felt to have the energy and desire to do so.