Ironically in the midst of writing in a journal entitled "365 Miles of Clarity" Seeing 20/20 and also driving to get new "glasses," I passed by (as I was driving) this beautiful mural of what looked to be cotton candy trees. Essentially, trees of rainbow colors. I've been particularly drawn to murals (more than usual) as well as painting bottles and fences and literally anything I can get my hands on these days. To me-painting has become the ability to reassess the world and my role in it. How can I evaluate (again) and change myself and my actions to be better. To do better. To find myself on a continuum of improvement.

I've always loved painting but I'm drawn to colors more. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I see many colors around me but I'm having a hard time feeling those colors. The need to paint is almost the need to repaint landscapes or how I want to see things or want others to see things or how I wish to feel color in a different way. We always talk about seeing color. But what about how we feel about color? To feel colors again in a different way is to label again the colors you once saw as one thing but now becoming another. We see blue as sad and red as angry. Why can't we repaint the colors? Maybe red is sunset calmness and blue is intentional but peaceful action. I guess think about that when talking about society and race to children today. What does it mean? It means repainting what we "thought" was right. Seriously-it's time to repaint the world far away from the "social constructs" we always thought were around us.  And the repainting is so necessary. 2020- take a bucket of paint and just start over. 

So when I saw the cotton candy trees, I smiled at the thought of that. I even went back for a picture, retracing my driving route. Though being directionally challenged, I did not get very far. I didn't see those cotton candy trees again. But it gave me hope for hardy repainting. My goal for today is to take something "familiar" or "what I think was "correct" and begin to word towards a new construct. Can we erase everything? Of course not. We will in a world where red was always anger and blue is always sadness and green is always "the grass." But can we collide against inactive change? Yes. And we are called to do so. 

Flip the bucket of paint over. Call yourself out. Not flexible? Get flexible. A changemaker? Probably not. We can all do way better. Start by re-evaluating everything you thought was once correct. Because it probably isn't. And don't pat yourself on the back. What you created isn't anything amazing. You just relabeled one drop of paint-hopefully in a better way than you labeled it before. 

Green isn't envy-green is grace. 

Blue isn't calm- blue is a tsunami

Red isn't anger- red is whimsical spunk

Orange isn't a sunset- orange is "peeling the status-quo"

Yellow isn't happiness- Yellow is identifying fake happiness and fake grace. Yellow is hidden guilt. Hidden egocentric behaviors

Purple- purple isn't royal. Purple is rebellion. But maybe tomorrow it will be a fresh purple coat of guilt.

See that drop of paint? Call it something different. Work to be different. Realize you will never ACTUALLY get to where you want to go. But we can try. And we can fight the continuum and all those who think red ist red and orange is orange.