I remember once as a little girl coloring an image inside a book. I had taken such care to select only the prettiest of colors, the ‘best of the best’ of that box of 64.

“You can’t do that,” my teacher huffed. “Everyone knows that the sky is blue.”

I tried to explain from the ‘limitations’ of my 6-year-old perspective, that the sky was blue only at times – though, it was so many others, too. I went home in tears, with ‘masterpiece’ tucked in hand. That which had once been a source of such joy, had – in one moment, become tarnished with another’s perspective.

My Mother, always sensitive to those more delicate undercurrents, sensed my upset. And, in a single act of grace and compassion, pulled the crumpled drawing from my hands.

“Oh, well – just look at all those colors,” she gleamed. “I particularly like the green.”

Not everything is so black and white, my loves. Sometimes the sky is blue, and sometimes there are magnificent flecks of gold and green.

And, as I’ve grown older I’ve learned – that ‘rules’ are meant to be broken. That we must be willing to engage that oft mottled ‘in between’.

And, we should be bold enough to live this life on our terms, without cause for regret. To color outside those lines, my darlings.

To embrace the life we always wished but never fully dared. This is what it means to be free, my loves – to have awakened the spirit within.

And I’m so ever grateful to my dearest Mother for lovingly sharing this lesson with me.

In peace…

Namaste ❤️