Color My World Pootie

It's been a couple of weeks since Christmas and the decorations on houses are still visible. For a few seconds I thought to myself how unfortunate it is that we don't have that obvious "in the spirit" look year round. I picked up the diaper duo from the sitter and as I turned the corner E.K. says "pootie lights momma, pootie lights". She is ecstatic with excitement. She absolutely loves Christmas lights!  I realize in that moment that the truth is that she loves the sparkle and the colors. It's such a simple pleasure and true joy. I can remember as a child the excitement I felt over crayons and the ability to color something. In elementary school we were usually given blank color pages and we got to decide what colors to use, whether we stayed inside the lines, go wildly outside of them or to pad them with thicker colored lines. Wow, what a concept! We can choose the "color" of the world we live in. As a child all you wanted was that ability to choose your own colors...or at least I did.  The funny thing is that I also remember there was always that one kid who seemed out of place from time to time or was constantly agitated (normally a boy in my experience) that would scribble all over his pages with one or two dark colors. I could give you my opinions on that now looking back, but that will have to wait for another post. :)  It quickly saddens me though to think that as adults we've lost the desire to color our worlds with the energy of an optimistic child. Have the experiences of life taken our ability to see the possibilities of the color choices? The colors are there, but maybe we have gotten comfortable with a certain picture that has been painted for us by others of how our lives should and currently do look.  It's only through our awareness that the ability to choose still resides within us that we can be true to ourselves.  I want to color my world with the "pootie" lights, so when my daughter looks at me she can see the sparkle and feel her own joy.  I pray my children never cease to see their color choices.Wishing you the peace and pleasure of choosing your true colors...