Our host for this month asked us to reflect on the color(s) we project to others, colors that act as a guiding light. My mind immediately went to my favorite color, yellow! I hope that I project the warmth and welcoming qualities of yellow to others that I meet. When I think of yellow, I think of sunshine and how happy we are when it arrives after a few days or a week of gray and gloom. My daughter had a yellow bedroom that I gladly claimed when she left home for college. Our new home has a yellow kitchen and a yellow front door. Both seemed to be fortuitous signs that we should rent this house.
When I think of yellow, I immediately think of light which was my OLW for 2020. Little did I know when I selected it as my word for the year, how much I would need light in 2020. I've collected a few of the things I've shared on my blog through the years to shed yellow (and light) for your day.
First of all, a favorite verse: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Psalm 119:105) A podcaster I enjoy, Emily Belle Freeman, suggests that we have a protection scripture for times of trouble. This verse is in the running for mine.
My favorite hymn and one I want sung at my funeral (Could we just sing hymns for the entire service?):
By day and by night his presence is near.
He is my salvation from sorrow and sin;
This blessed assurance the Spirit doth bring.
The Lord is my light;
He is my joy and my song.
By day and by night
He leads, he leads me along."
Here's an etheree (10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables) that I wrote for Poetry Friday in 2020:
Light,
my one
little word.
I seek moments
of shine to turn my
heart toward gratitude.
I seek friends with hope filled hearts
to lighten our walk through the dark.
I seek Jesus, the source of all light,
who succors and sustains my quest for Light.
- Ramona Behnke
On a drive yesterday, I started thinking about other colors that guide my life, that truly make a bouquet of loveliness and light. First, green because I love all the varied shades of green that appear in the springtime. And I love trees because they encourage me to look heavenward. And then blue and white, the perfect ingredients for a gorgeous daytime sky. May you walk in yellow (sunshine & Sonshine) and revel in the greens, blues, and whites of our gorgeous world.
Ramona, yellow is such a bright welcoming color. It can't help but make people smile when they come in contact with it. The fact that this is your color tells me that you are a beacon of light that welcomes all. Yellow is also a cautionary color, thinking of a traffic light here, so I am sure you are a person cautions others to think about their actions before rushing into something. Thanks for sharing your colors with us.
ReplyDeleteRamona, your yellow color splashes across your post are so uplifting and welcoming. Even in the down moments of life yellow brings its divine light to fill our hearts if we just be in the moments. Sometimes, during yoga meditation I can see the light streaming into the darkened room. Thanks for bringing color into this drab, cold day. I knew that green was your earthly color but your descriptions of each color that touches your heart are beautiful. May song fill your day and your yellow door welcome all into your home.
ReplyDeleteI grew up believing yellow is the color of God's light. I love that your front door is yellow! What a welcome it must be to walk across the threshold. I know we find yellow everywhere in nature, but your etheree is such a beautiful reminder that we find it in friends who "lighten our walk through the dark." Thank you, Ramona.
ReplyDeleteRamona, you're so right about the links between yellow and light; I enjoyed the yellow highlighting of "light" here as a concrete connection. The lines just glow, as do the Lord's promises to be with us and your trust in Him. YOU and your verses impart so much light... a channel of blessing, as the old hymn says. And those sunflowers-!! So symbolic a reminder to keep turning toward the light. Thank for this creative collation of your previous OLW - a mighty one.
ReplyDeleteLovely thoughts!
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