So, in an effort to improve my writing, I will post more often than once every eight months!
I am not sure whether this fits the "colorful" theme of the blog, but today, the young man behind that brown eye, my not-quite-18-year-old-son, boarded a plane by himself, made a connection in a city I have never been to, landed and was met by a representative from a college that he has been accepted to. He will spend the next two days visiting with other accepted students...
I am proud of his independence and willingness to strike out on his own. Yet the pride was mixed with such wistfulness as I watched him shoulder his duffle bag and backpack to head out to the airport. He is my youngest child, so his transition is also my own. As he negotiates his way into the world without his parents, his father and I also have to learn to negotiate our way into the world again without the defining role of "mom" and "dad".
Love you, buddy man.
So, this is a colorful little guy...he was in my herb window box Sunday morning, sunning himself, waiting for breakfast. I am glad that I was able to notice him before I opened up with the garden hose...he might have washed away! I wonder how much of what is worthwhile and interesting in my life I wash away with the torrent of everyday worries and routine. A closer, more patient look around never hurts, I suppose.
Years ago, my dear friend L. and I decided that the word "colorful" was a much kinder way of describing the...well, unusual or different people or situations that we all encountered or heard about everyday. Stories that we have heard passed on to us from friends and acquaintances never failed to amuse and amaze us. "Colorful" is the perfect adjective for those in our lives that don't fit neatly into society's carefully prescribed definitions of behavior or propriety. We tend to see this as a bad thing most of the time; fitting in is usually seen as desirable and being different in word or deed is discouraged.
But being colorful can also describe someone or something that is out of the ordinary because of talent or temperament, beliefs or beauty, quality or character. I think that our world is made much richer by colorful people and things brave enough to stand out against all the black and white.
I hope to be able to find some of these colorful people, past, present and future, to write about here.
