What's Your Favorite Color?

On the way home from visiting my sister I was asking my darling husband questions…because that’s what I do, I ask questions. Actually, my husband knows that if he doesn’t sing with me, I’m going to ask questions. We were talking about color and what our favorite colors are, we weren’t singing.

My husband, being the most “phlegmatic” person I know (temperament 101: peace-filled, peace-desiring, peace at all costs, NON-joining, non-committing, never using terms like always and never…this is Phlegmatic MAN) peers at me in while pondering his response to the question, “What is your favorite color?”

He finally says: “That’s a hard question.” I always guffaw when I hear a response like that because I ALWAYS have a response and typically a quick response about EVERYTHING. Of course, you know that about me already…lol!

Because he is my husband I ride him hard about it, “Come on, that is NOT a hard question…let me make it even easier…what is your favorite color to wear?”

“Well, it depends.” He utters.

“Are you kidding me?” I’m thinking silently while non-verbally burning his right arm on the steering wheel with my evil eye prompted by such an inane statement! By now, the Holy Spirit is quietly saying: “Maybe you should just sing for awhile…” Of course, because I know best what’s best for me…(oh no, I didn’t say that out loud did I?) we continue with these questions to no avail.

My husband, being such a peaceful person doesn’t have any problem continuing in his seeming uncertainty. He just doesn’t want to “commit” to an answer that could in fact, not be a true representation of his heart. This is one reason I know our marriage is strong and will remain strong, because he loves me…the day he finally told me he loves me I knew it was TRUE to the END!

Anyway, suffice to say he really couldn’t answer that ~ so as I always do in these times of non-commitment…I just tell him his answer! Don’t act like you haven’t done that!

I told him his favorite color must be blue or red because that is what he wears all the time. Of course he had some response to that statement, but I didn’t hear him because my singing was drowning him out by then.

Wow…that rabbit took me way off course…where was I…oh yes, color!

I studied color when I was contemplating an Art Therapy degree. It didn’t really surprise me to read how color not only impacts mood and chemicals in our brain, but also how long-term exposure to specific colors can ultimately shift and alter behavior…for good or bad! The color purple, for example, was not used in ‘asylums’ because of its ability to invoke insanity. Yet, purple is a “royal” color, used by kings and queens throughout history to signify royalty…go figure!

I’m sitting here in the “green room” this morning and realized what a perfect color and “name” for this room. Green is a calming color it also promotes creativity (check this site out: www.myth.com/color/meaning.html. This site is entertaining more then educational but it gives great words for your favorite colors.)

The name “Green Room” has even more significance. I had initially thought about how it is used in theater and television. Guests wait in a “green room” before coming onstage. I looked it up online and here is what I found:

The Green Room: The origin of the term is unknown, though some explanations, that the colour was a response to limelight – early stage lighting, have been suggested. Green is also thought to be a calming and soothing colour.

Additionally, it is a “surfing term” that is the inside of a “tube”, which I had NO IDEA what a tube was…and it means: The inside of a hollow wave. Okay so in surfing to be in a ‘green room’ is to be surfing inside a hollow wave…I can see why it would get that term.

This green room I am in this morning casts a glow under the door. I think it must be special. It is a special place to be...for me. It is a wonderful world of my own creation waiting to be untapped. It is where I can commune with God while I am “waiting” to ‘perform’ here on earth. It is a ‘limelight’ with God. It is sometimes, surfing inside a BIG hollow wave. It can be scary and uncertain. It can be overwhelming and feel stagnating. It can smother me, in my own self-expectation and judgment. BUT, it can also hug me and hold me tight while I allow my mind to wander through the stories within me.

Green is my favorite color.