It's a Colorful Life

I always wanted the box of 64. Eight colors, sixteen colors, even twenty-four colors were alright, but there is something magical when you move beyond the classic chromatics.

I'm completely captivated by colors.

Have you ever noticed how many different shades of green there are around you? There are at least two dozen, bright, tree-frog green caterpillar eggs stuck to my glass window; the rich, pure green of golf grass, which to me, is nature's very own lush feather bed; the frosty, dark green of the long, thin pine needles that seem dull now, but will hold almost all the color in the landscape come winter; and the greens of all the different leaves covering the trees like feathers on a flock of birds. Often, I wonder if all of these leaves really are different shades or if it's just their shapes and shadows that makes it easy to tell one tree apart from another.

But it isn't just greens. There are blues and yellows, purples and pinks, reds, oranges, browns and blacks.    Anyone who has ever perused the painting aisles at Home Depot knows there are hundreds of shades and colors.

The Phantom Tollbooth is an wonderful story; I love the whimsical word plays more than anything. But the best part of the book for me, was the sunrise. In the story, there is a conductor named Chroma who leads a lavish orchestra in a symphony that would shame even Schubert. For when the musicians play, they don't produce notes, but color. And as the song continues, the sky turns the most beautiful shades as the sun rises, until the morning sky appears in all its glory. Each morning Chroma conducts the sunrise and each morning the colors produce themselves in different patterns. I thought it was spectacular!

Since then, I've always admired the morning sky--and the evening one as well.  I have this theory, that you can find every color imaginable up in the sky, if you look at the right times. It's like this over-arching canvas, always splashed with moving color. I suppose it must be a bit like the room on the Disney cruise ship that changes color as you eat.

It only takes a glance at the morning sky or a saunter through a flowery garden to see the enchanting array of colors everywhere. Imagine... every single color we can think of exists in nature already. I have paint chips I pulled from the shelves of a whole wall of colored paper at the home improvement store. I keep them in my desk, and hunt for them in the world wherever I go. You begin to see how many beautiful colors there are around you this way.

But my very favorite color?

White.

Because it brings out the heart of all the others.