In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t purchased a black rain coat for professional occasions.
For twenty years, my hiking slicker was bright, vivid, sunshine yellow. I recently got a new Patagonia coat in perfect violet-blue periwinkle. The color makes me wish for a rainy spring day. I’ll slip on my jacket, go for a walk, and listen to drops fall onto the hood.
The sensible part of me goes for a practical wardrobe. Black this and black that—crazy socks being the exception. Once in a while I detour to gray or brown. My artist’s heart wants clothing in purple, deep dark reds, flashes of fuchsia, bold glowing golds, and vibrant verdant greens. I want crazy patterns and will never stop loving paisley no matter if the world thinks it’s out of style.
I like the pretty of life. My eyes are drawn to the aesthetically pleasing. Standing before a great work of art at Madrid’s Prado Museum. Marveling at the baroque details of European churches. Admiring the elaborate architecture of a random building. Don’t you think we have an obligation to add the appealing to this world whenever we can? Smile at others, laugh at simple jokes, and provide hugs when needed. We should, in essence, add our goodness to the universe whenever we can.
Include Color in Your Days
Adding color where we can is an important part of that obligation, isn’t it?
Before I moved into Alex’s home, I quizzed this analytically-minded engineer. “Will you allow me to add color to your life both figuratively and literally?” Do you think he knew what impact that question and his agreement would have on him? His beige walls transformed to mustard, camp fire, and ancho chili pepper throughout the living room and kitchen? I replaced the ecru hall bathroom and downstairs powder room with Tuscan orange. My office became a blue-green color that matches the sea of Goodwick, South Wales. Imagine my delight when he picked an unusual green-yellow for his office, transforming that neutral space.
Psychology Today talks about bright, saturated, colors as relaxing us—these are the hues people are prone to like in bedrooms. Warm colors, like red or that orange shade in our kitchen, make a space charming. We like being welcomed into the hearth of a home? I learn that green is tied to creative thinking—good choice for my office, eh? This is fun reading if you want to check the link.
Bright Colors Can be Conveyed by Words
Color influences the words we use and the way we use them.
Remember Perry Como’s song, Sing? It was a daily mantra for me as a creative writing participant in the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. (When I win the lottery, I’ll re-launch this invaluable program independent of the government so that it never dies again.) We non-musical attendees were taught to sing as loudly as those with stunning voices, and we did.
So it goes with adding pleasantries to the world. It’s not about being physically beautiful (eye of the beholder, after all), it is about acting and behaving beautifully. Be whole from the inside out. Share the best of yourself with boisterous enthusiasm. Give the finest part of yourself every day—especially with the various shades and tints we carry with us.
Then There Are the Colors of Kids
Isn’t unbridled joy an apt description of little kids? Before life blemishes children with societal attitudes and teaches them, “how to behave,” they are unique little bursts of sunshine. Yes, I know they can turn into thunderstorms (where is that rain coat?). Who doesn’t when they’re hungry and can’t cook what they want when they want it? The preciousness of the hugs my nephew used to give as a toddler. He’d roll out of bed, plod down the wooden stairs, traipse barefoot across the fieldstone floor, wrap his arms around me, and pat-pat-pat. It was the best morning greeting, as if to say, don’t be serious. I’m here now, let’s smile and have fun—let’s color!
Kids dress in crazy clothing combinations and mix stripes with plaids and pink with green with yellow. They are unspoiled in their joy of sharing laughter and views of the universe with the somber adults in their life.
Don’t ruin today by cutting off the rude driver in traffic, maybe he’s having a bad trip you can make better. Broadly wave your purple-covered arm to invite him in front of you.
Don’t explode about your work stress. Be happy to have a job that adds what it adds to your life from the most basic of necessities to … being around people wearing every color and pattern imaginable.
Smile.
Smile again.
Look in the mirror and smile once more as you notice what you adorned yourself with before you left home that morning. Be glad as you realize that you decided to wear the pink sweater with yellow trim, the Jerry Garcia tie with broad swirls, the multi-colored socks, or maybe red pants … and know that you are carrying a rainbow you can share with the world.
*Read, The Importance of Smiling When You Walk Away
I have a bright fuschia raincoat that’s starting to wear but I don’t want to get rid of it. The bright color gives me a lift but it also makes me visible … a very important consideration in rainy, gray weather 🙂 I do love color. Although I wear mostly blacks and grays, my accessories will often add a spark. By the way, I love the color scheme for your living room. Very inviting!
Yum! Fuschia! Great color to pick! Gray & black like me–but thank heavens we can add big bursts of colors with scarves, etc. And in your brave case–your awesome hair!
Thank you–come on over and we’ll share wine amid the colors!
Coming from an Indian Background, I have always loved colour. Life can be so dull without colour. When I first came to UK, it was winter time and everyone was wearing black, blue or brown winter coats and there I was in my Red coat!! Years on – I am still wearing colourful stuff as I hate seeing myself in plain black or white clothes.
I hope that you made those UK folks envious of your beautiful red coat, Mina! My next one will certainly be anything except black!
Refreshing post! Colour can bring joy to our lives particularly those which are bright and vibrant. I love bright colours and wear oranges, fuschia pinks and yellows in the summer months. I used to stick to black believing it was more classic and therefore more flattering. Now I do not live by such rigid rules. Life really is too short. How boring would it be if we all gravitated to a uniformed look?
Great point about not getting irate with other drivers. We can allow situations and people to affect our mood when we should live to influence others positively. I feel like waving a colourful flag now!
Did you wave that flag, Phoenicia? Love the idea of that! I also love the pictures you post on Facebook showing you in those beautiful colors you mentioned. You–seriously–brighten my day!
Rosemary — Color makes a huge difference in how you feel. The first few months I was in my new apartment I felt that I was living in a hospital waiting room — all the walls were white. I decided to do an accent wall, and it was a pale color and didn’t do much. Then my painter suggested a deep peach color for two walls. Voila! It completely changed the look and feel of the room and I could not be happier.
I had one of those white-walled apartments, too, Jeannette. Yuck! I can visualize the deep peach color and how cozy it makes the room when the sun moves through it. Lovely.
I love color! When I first moved into my house in 2003, I spent six months painting every square inch. I even painted the ceilings since the building didn’t use flat-white paint by default (live and learn). I even taped off the closet doors and regular doors and painted the insert panels. Cool, right? Then when I moved out and rented the house out for a couple of years I had to paint EVERYTHING white again. It took some time. I did leave the living room “as is” with an adobe red and tan walls. Before moving back in, that was the first time I hired a painter to repaint the living room. It was so worth it. As for the other rooms, I now go for accent walls rather than painting the whole room. I have lots of colorful artwork. Oh, and when I moved back into the house after not living in it for two years, the maintenance person from the property rental company touched up all the white walls with flat white paint. Good grief. It all got sorted out eventually, but what a pain.
Oh my goodness, Jeri! There’s a house saga in action. I’m not certain what the point of flat paint is! Ceilings only I guess since they are the only ones that don’t get regular action from daily life. Unless you’re squashing bugs up there. ha.
I’ll bet your house looked super cute with the original painting it did–and I’m betting it’s as cozy as can be now with the artwork and accents.
Lo to those living in white spaces. Spice it up!