I just picked the up the memoir, Forever Boy, by Kate Swensen written by a student I had as a 7th grader many years ago. Kate’s book has already received raving reviews. Her book chronicles her challenge of raising and teaching and living with an autistic child. Already the author of the blog, Finding Cooper’s Voice, Kate has received and given support to other parents of special needs children for several years.
Although I have just started reading, Kate’s honesty as she shares her journey, her struggles, those of her family and Cooper’s siblings is heartwarming – and heart-wrenching at the same time. She takes care to remind the reader in the first chapter, though, that her book is not a sad book, but rather a journey to finding joy. The joy she finds in her son, and the gift he brings to her family and the world, will keep me turning the pages. I hope I have enough midnight oil 😉
Color has power and impact. When I think about color, I realize how almost every movement, action or interaction involves color in some way. It is a topic that feels too huge to tackle and to write about – where to begin? Color effects mood and the environment, it invokes emotion and feelings, it acts on the body and the mind, it is cultural, symbolic and has universal, national and personal associations. It can be a warning that something is wrong – or that everything is fine. It is everywhere – in everything. Color is light and light is energy. Colour Lovers, at a web site devoted to people who love color, share color palettes and talk about color. The sidebar highlights top colors and new colors and people submit colors and color palettes. And people add all kinds of comments to the color submissions, some absurdly unrelated, such as “My friend sent me a postcard. It was a satellite picture of the entire world. On the back it said, “Wish you were here'” and “Curiosity killed the cat. But for a while I was a suspect.” This site would be a place to find inspiration when designing web colors, colors for jewelry or for knitting projects. Or for putting together clothes or designing a garden. The most loved color right now, according to this site, is BLACK, followed by a slate blue color. In the top ten four are green-lime greenish, and the rest are shades of blue. The most used colors are white, followed by black, then various shades of grey, slate, then some shades of red, blue and yellow.
And then there’s John Mayer’s comment on color as it relates to people: “Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-color boxes, but what you’re really looking for are the 64-color boxes with the sharpeners on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64-color box, though I’ve got a few missing. It’s ok though, because I’ve got some more vibrant colors like periwinkle at my disposal. I have a bit of a problem though in that I can only meet the 8-color boxes. Does anyone else have that problem? I mean there are so many different colors of life, of feeling, of articulation.. so when I meet someone who’s an 8-color type.. I’m like, “Hey girl, magenta!” and she’s like, “Oh, you mean purple!” and she goes off on her purple thing, and I’m like, “No – I want magenta?”
There are now 120 colors in the biggest box of Crayola Crayons. See Crayola Crayons for a history of crayons and names of colors – kind of interesting, especially if you remember the excitement of getting a brand new box of crayons as a kid! If it is hard to find a 64-color box type person, imagine finding a 120-color box type! I am fortunate to have several of those rare 120-color box type people in my life – others who color my life with shades of love, adding layers of brilliantly hued meaning to my existence. I thank the spirit of the world’s colors daily for these wonderful beings.
A Thousand Dreams 