Friday, March 11, 2011

"Color My World with My Favorite Color"

Well, our Writers Group did it again! Issuing another thought-provoking topic, our task for next time is to write about one color that has some sort of significance in our lives. At first, this seemed difficult to me. But once I really thought about it, the task became quite a bit easier. The reason, I hope, will be obvious....


Color My World with My Favorite Color


If I had to pick just one color that I truly like and explain why I like it, I think it would be a test that I might very easily fail. As an artist, I love most colors! But, since that is what our assignment is, I will comply and tell about just one of them, and what it means to me.

Green is the color that I feel has impacted my life the most. It signifies the leaves on the crocuses that peek up through the snow in my front garden, and the early shoots of grass stretching their tiny arms toward the sun that follow close behind in the spring.  Just spying a dot of green against the starkness of the white snow will bring an up-turn to the corners of my mouth, and cause my heart to skip a beat or two. Green reminds me of Life itself, life being reborn as it once again enters this world from deep within the ground up to the tops of the tallest trees.

I remember standing in front of the huge glass window in the hospital’s hallway, with the eerie whistle of the furiously blowing wind demanding entry to the building.  I could see the cars’ red tail-light smears reflected like zigzagging ribbons on the wet, gray pavement of the streets three floors below. The trees in the park across the street from the hospital were all dull brown and quite bare. The sky behind them was a gun metal gray-blue with no hint of yellow sun anywhere in sight. It was late March and I had been in the hospital for nearly six weeks at that point. When I entered, it had been winter. Now, the world was ready to welcome spring; and there I was, trapped behind red brick walls in a stark white hospital room. Dragging my silver IV Poles along with me, I could go out into the hallway and watch the world go on without me on the other side of that crystaline window. All too often, a tear or two would escape my eye and roll down my cheek, going just so far, and then pause, waiting for me to wipe them away.

Then, one day in early April a miracle awaited me! As I looked out the window at the park across the street, tiny green flecks dotted every branch of every tree. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But, no – they were real, they were there and they were a tender, light green: tree buds! Buds filled the backdrop of the robin’s egg blue sky like freckles on a child’s face.  Just seeing those green buds brought joy to my heart. The world had made it through a very tough winter; and I slowly realized, this time, so had I. Green also means “Go!” Every day that I am given the gift of waking up, I get that green light to keep going,  and  that is something that I cherish above all else.

Yes, out of all the colors in the rainbow, if asked which one means the most to me, I would have to pick green: Wonderful, glorious, generation to generation green! 

This is a life-sized tree that I painted in our wildlife clinic's lobby! Needless to say, it is full of green!