When I was in college, we had a saying, a sweet and careful tease, "What color IS the sky in your world?" We gave to gave to each other when someone said something that was cluelessly off course. We'd laugh and smile and often get answer. Purple, green, and gold were popular.
At each answer I gave or got, I would imagine a world with a sky that color. The image was always clear and filled with wonder. It was a breath. It was a breeze. a hug with friends around me. , It was a fleeting pleasure. How could I know how refreshing, how refueling, how fun it was? I didn't know because . . .
Because back then I only thought a young person's thoughts.
Then awake at sunrise, I saw the color of a boy's eyes. We would still be up and talking, greeting morning as an ending. It was feeling the longing of trying to pack another second into the swiftly, sliding, waning minutes that would see him gone. The sky was blue by then.
Now I see the sunrise from a black beginning. It's a wholesome, open , spacious feeling. Every color fades in for me to savor one-by-one. Life is the flavor of coffee. Work is the ideas stretching out into the day that lays itself out on the lake before me. It's a glory and a stroke of genius every morning.
What color is the sky in my world? is not a clueless question anymore.
--me strauss Letting me be
12 comments:
Your post is a breath of fresh air. My sky rarely is any one color. And almost never a solid color. I greet the dawn from a black beginning, too. When I oversleep, I feel cheated.
Reading your words today makes me want to slow down my breathing and pay closer attention. Thanks!
Hi Dawn,
Reading your message was wonderful. Just to know that you read this was fun for me. I was feeling particularly into the sky early this morning. :)
Hey Liz-
You are always grounded in the beauty of nature, which will never let you down.
I hope you are well in all respects, and that your life is fulfilling.
I hardly post these days, but I love delving into deep subjects when I do, breathing, love, addiction. It's a pattern which feels right for me, its spontnaeity. The world is changing, but the sunrise always comes, and you don't have to prove anything to anyone to see it happen!
Hi David,
I miss you. I know what you mean about these subject I enjoy thinking about them and playing with the language. It's really something to get a feeling going that matches the way the words are flowing.
lhg.
What a beautiful post, you have a lovely way with words. Thanks you very much and have a wonderful day.
Hi Christy,
Thank you for stopping to say that. I was in a playful mood yesterday and ready for the sky to come out to play with me. :)
Liz, since I saw all your blogs listed in MyBlogLog I decided to peek in here and see what you were cooking. Wow, what a banquet.
I couldn't appreciate the sunrises when I was raising my three children since my sun centered in them during that space of time. But now I see both beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
This next week I see a major milestone. I never dreamed I would live to be 65 though in my mind and vigor I am very much younger. But, yes, here I am. And I find that the color we see in our sunset can be most beautiful of all.
Hi Robyn,
What gorgeous comment you write! I never believed I would live to be as old as my mother. But here I am and I'm telling you what you're telling me. That it's more than worth it. :)
Lovely post! Just popping in to wish you a beautiful day!
Hi Marti!
Thank you. Great to see you!
Hi Liz, we are a reflection of our thoughts and feelings. When we are young our depth of our vision is distorted to a space that is so near and close to our thoughts.
As we begin to see balance and health in our life we can go back to what we enjoy and know that we do not have to rediscover the wheel, we can enjoy what we have built upon. When I read this post and your reflection of now and then. I see maturity in your colors, I see eyes that smile, a face that warms to their mornings with optimism and intellegence. I do not see color at all, I see your heart.
It is almost a post of emtional intellegence and the diversity of our minds as we age. Color to me represents race, diversity, and our perception of those differences. I however see my colors in your words. We do not always see truly what is written
Hi Lance,
Thank you for the thoughts you so generously give me in your comment. It's so exciting to hear what you see in my words. It's the magical reader/writer outside/inside view that so fascinates me -- how each one of us can bring so much to the same words.
I hear inside your comment the experience of a lifetime of learning about the way people perceive each other and the world. I also hear the size of your heart as you find the things I'm not saying, that sit in the white spaces between my words.
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