Brown 

Brown. I once thought Brown was the most boring color, ever. Wasn't much fun to paint with in art class, except as an accent color when required. Always turned out crummy whenever I played with mixing my own colors (red + green = brown). Notebooks with tear-out construction paper always had lots of brown leftovers. And unless I was drawing tree trunks, the brown crayons stayed the sharpest, longest.

But over the years, I've come to love Brown. It's the color of earth, from which we grow food to live, and to which we return when this life is over. It's the rich hues of wood that makes up furniture, doors, and shelves, and also useful objects like broom handles and cooking spoons. It's the leather (or pleather) of sandals that cushion our steps, and of bags that carry our belongings. It's energetic fawns bounding around in springtime. It's the unexpected delight of chocolate and the zing of coffee.

It's easy to overlook Brown, though. It's an ordinary, workaday color that simply goes about its business without any fanfare. You don't see Brown socializing much at fancy soirées, or posing in attention-grabbing advertisements. It's humble, simple, modest, approachable, steadfast, friendly, quiet. A neutral color, Brown "help(s) to put the focus on other colors or serve to tone down colors that might otherwise be overpowering on their own" (Jacci Howard Bear).

Brown. Who knew a color could be my role model?

Labels: colors, reflections

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posted by Lisa, ofs | Permalink