I can’t imagine life without color. I live where winter is long and the world appears as if painted with a neutral, uninspired palette. Then one day spring pops like a cork from a bottle of fizzy champagne. Waking up each morning becomes a reason to celebrate. To step outside without layers of clothing is a gift. Bare trees glow with yellow-green buds that within days become verdant leaves of all shapes and sizes. The first flowers shoot out of the ground and whoops! sometimes even stand bravely surrounded by snow. Their pure hues of yellow, red, pink, and violet glow like lights. Stores, eager to capitalize on spring fever are stocked with flowers of exotic shapes and colors. Hanging baskets like the Gardens of Babylon float overhead trailing ivy, sedum, and moss. Plantlets wait in neat containers ready to go in the ground to beautify our homes and gardens.
Kaleidoscopic color at every turn fills me with renewed energy and awakens a zest for living. Having windows open gives way to sleeping under only a sheet with soft breezes perfuming the air. Lighter clothing mimics nature’s colors and adds to the festivity all around. The sun generates energy as it penetrates exposed arms, legs and feet. Visits to the shore and dips in the lake offer views like no other. The sky is vast and ever-changing.
I could never choose a favorite color because they all rate equally high. One thing for certain is color makes me whole, human, vibrant and alive. I want to explore and try new foods including recipes featuring heaps rainbow-colored produce.
It’s a busy season and while the artist/painter in me works overtime to capture spring’s beauty I find that writing adds another dimension. Thoughts, hopes, wishes, dreams, ambitions, gripes, elation, and pain get explored on the page. New ideas equal satisfaction and abundant challenges, puzzles to work. Life is lived with gusto. By taking pen to my journal and recording my day I can enjoy it deeply and often. Every word committed assures my excitement won’t be forgotten or lost. It will come in handy when winter again descends and life slows down to a reflective pace.
