Color My World

I woke up this morning and looked out of the window to be greeted by yet another blanket of white against a backdrop of alternating shades of grey ... with a few brown branches sticking out for texture. Another few inches of snow had fallen overnight and now the familiar sounds of plows, shovels and snow blowers are playing their daily tune. I swear I have a slight case of snow blindness even indoors. Even though I try to make sure there is color inside my home, the light from outside bleaches everything inside. I need to do something colorful to change the light in my own eyes and in my soul. So I'm digging out my coloring books and colored pencils.

The kids have been gifting me with these wonderful adult coloring books for a while now. At first I used them all of the time, but when the weather started to warm up and the world splashed its own box of colors around, I spent more time walking outside to invite color into my life - there's nothing like the original. Now that the world seems to be devoid of color, I am taking them out again. Since most of them have to do with nature, they are just perfect for this outdoor lover and retired gardener. Some of them even come with inspirational sayings or famous quotes designed to touch you as much as the act of coloring itself, for in picking the actual colors and moving your hand across the page, you find yourself in a sort of meditative place where you can touch the soul of your creativity. For everyone who has ever said: "Oh, I can't paint/draw, etc. I'm not talented that way," this is the way for you to put your own colorful stamp on the world. And on a day like today, with nothing but grey and white light all around you, sitting down with a coloring book and letting your inner child out to play is like a painter sitting in front of a blank canvas with a palette full of paint ... the sky is the limit!

So you'll have to excuse me now as I sharpen my pencils and find the coloring book that is calling to this inner 5 year old today. Hmmm? Yes! I think the book with all of the butterflies is what I need. Today I feel a calling to start fighting my way out of my cocoon. 

And so it is.