I have a 5-by-18 inch plaque in my home office that reads, “There will be a five dollar charge for whining.” My wife, June, gave it to me. She knows how some of my days can go and gave it to me as a joke when the litany of woes begins to pile up.

It was just lying around and when I set up my home office the colors matched with the décor, at least to this man’s eye. So up it went above the door so I could see it when leaving and coming home.

I did wonder if it was directed at some behavior that I need to examine in my own life. Perhaps it was, as she suggested, for me to put in my office away from home.

One evening, June shared an especially difficult day with me. June is a very detailed artist and she told of the events of her day in meticulous, excruciating and painstaking detail as she painted the picture of her awful day perfectly. As in her work, she took her time and was thorough.

When she noticed it upon leaving the room she laughed and said,”Do I need to go get you five dollars?”

Let me go on record that my placing it in my home office was not a direct or indirect hint. I am not so sure how it would be viewed in my office at the church. After all, one of my roles is a listener. Sometime folks just want to have a personal pity party and get on with their lives. Some just want to live life as a personal pity party. And no one wants an invitation the That party!

I have vented with my friends and I hope you have as well. It is a safe way of expressing those pressures in life before they take the top off of the pressure cooker. Picture the canning process without a release valve to the boiling pot. People can get hurt when there is no release for the building pressure.

I have a book in my office entitled, “Attitude is your paintbrush.” I was drawn to the book several years ago and led a study of baby boomer age adults in it.

The title speaks volumes. Often, we have little control over the scenes and circumstances in life. Yes, we have responsibility for our choices but as Robert Frost reminded us in "The Road Less Traveled," “way leads onto way” and some of life is just playing the hand that is dealt or a result of the twists and turns of life.

In some real measure, the only aspect of life that is in our control is what we do with and about the life we have.

On our refrigerator door with some other helpful reminders is a saying that goes like this: “Want to get rich quick? Count your blessings.”

So this is what I would suggest to myself and to the readers of this article. Get out the paintbrush, a clean canvas every day and paint a picture of that day. Look through any despair and darkness to the glimmer of hope and light that is surely there.

Take the drab colors, the angry ones, the brilliant and bright ones, and mix them together until new hues and shades may be spread on the canvas. Blend the warm colors with the cool ones and use them to paint the landscape you see on that day.

Wait out the storm and scan the horizon for the rainbow that stretches across the sky and then allow it to reach across the canvas called today.

And at the end of the day sign it for it was the best picture possible on that day. Hang in the gallery called life. Stop from time to time to examine your best work but not to long to miss the opportunities and the canvas of today and understand that the not-so-good work was just an exercise in growth.

Each and all of us will need to clean out our paintbrush from time to time. A trusted friend, a trained counselor, a time of prayer or meditation, a walk in the park or a day in recreation might clean out the old paint that has accumulated.

And after that, take up the clean paintbrush with a clean attitude and a new perspective and begin to create today’s masterpiece.