I love color. I love looking outside and seeing all the GREEN … there are so many different shades of green in nature. It’s especially lovely now, in early spring, when the NEW leaves are just being born and their color is that new beautiful fresh light green. It contrasts perfectly with the dark bold green of the evergreen trees that are always there.

Color has meaning and symbolism in our world culture and in different cultures throughout the world and throughout history.

Here are a few …

Red: My favorite reds are tulips, roses, Japanese maples, strawberries, raspberries and watermelon. Here’s what Wikipedia says about red …

Red can vary in shade from very light pink to very dark maroon or burgundy; and in hue from the bright orange-red scarlet or vermilion to the bluish-red crimson.

Since red is the color of blood, it has historically been associated with sacrifice, danger and courage. Modern surveys in the United States and Europe show red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love and joy. In China and many other Asian countries it is the color of happiness.

Yellow: Isn’t yellow cheery? I love that it’s the color we associate with the sun. It’s a happy WARM color. I love daffodils and bananas and sunflowers and fields of wheat. Here’s the Wikipedia info about yellow …

Yellow is the color between green and orange in the spectrum of visible light, and in nature is the color of gold, butter and ripe lemons.

According to surveys in Europe, Canada and the United States, yellow is the color people most often associate with amusement, optimism, gentleness, and spontaneity, but also with duplicity, envy, jealousy, avarice, and, in the U.S., with cowardice. It plays an important role in Asian culture, particularly in China, where it is seen as the color of happiness, glory, wisdom, harmony and culture.

Blue: This is my personal favorite color. It is serene and calm to me. I love the blue sky, blueberries, the perfectly turquoise color of ocean water, and any flower that is blue? So pretty! My closet is FULL of blue … from navy to bold to turquoise … it fills me with joy. Here’s the Wikipedia info on blue …

Blue is the color between violet and green on the optical spectrum of visible light.

Survey show that blue is the color most associated with the masculine, just ahead of black, and is also the color most associated with intelligence, knowledge, calm and concentration.

Surveys in the US and Europe show that blue is the color most commonly associated with harmony, faithfulness, confidence, distance, infinity, the imagination, cold, and sometimes with sadness. In US and European public opinion polls it is the most popular color, chosen by almost half of both men and women as their favorite color.

White: White is a color without color. It has a ton of symbolic meaning … I love perfectly fluffy white clouds and those perfectly white flowers … did you know there’s a white rose called the “Honor Rose” … Honor Rose is my actual name so I have always loved that. White feels clean and simple. Isn’t there a beauty and awesomeness in perfectly falling snow and how the earth looks under a blanket of clean white? It is peaceful. Wikipedia says …

White is created by a mixture of the frequencies of all the colors of the visible spectrum, and is one of the most common colors in nature.

In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude.

Black: Black is a “dressy” color … we wear it when we want to look nice. I think the dark black sky against the little light dots of stars is so awesome. A black panther or a perfectly black horse looks sleek and powerful. Black is simple, too, like white, and together with white, there’s a sort of “yin/yang” thing that shows all and nothing at once, together in harmony. Wikipedia says …

Black is the darkest “color,” the result of the absence of or complete absorption of light. It is the opposite of white (the combined spectrum of color or light).

In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches and magic. According to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, evil, and elegance.

Isn’t it interesting that there are feelings, emotions, and pictures associated with colors? I also find it interesting that white is all color combined … it is light, and black is the ABSENCE of light or color, dark.

In the world around us there are patterns and symbols and thoughts that translate to other ideas and principles. These truths about color and their symbols and meanings illuminates other similar ideas.

For example:

White is essentially all color combined. It is ALL. Black isn’t as much its own thing as it is the absence of all color. Light is like this. The sun shines and it’s light. When the sun is no longer upon the spot of earth you find yourself, it is dark. The darkness is the ABSENCE of light. It’s not so much its own thing, but the absence of the sun shining. The cause is the light, or sun being absent. The effect is darkness.

Look at LOVE. Love is energy. It grows and expands. It is able to be given and it isn’t depleted as its given, it stays within the one who gave, and goes to the one who received. Love is our true nature. What is the opposite of love? Fear: anxiety, hatred, anger etc. Those are each, when applied within the principle of white/black and light/dark, the ABSENCE of love. They are not so much a thing, as they are the ABSENCE of the thing … in this case love.

When love, compassion, and joy are not present, their absence in a person’s experience makes a hole. That hole is darkness. That hole is fear. That hole is hatred. That hole breeds anger, frustration, worry, and all of the feelings that exist outside of well being and peace.

What does this mean? Well, for me it is HUGE when I apply this to my life.

I can look at all things in my life as love or the absence of love. If it is love and it expands love then I focus on it. I joy in it. I feel gratitude for it. I acknowledge by the feeling of peace that envelops me in that state that it is my TRUE nature. If it is the absence of love and it shrinks and diminishes and weakens love, then I know that it CALLS FOR love to heal it.

Look at the light and dark scenario. If a room is light and the light is given by a lamp in the middle of the room, when the light is turned off, the absence of that light causes darkness. If there is darkness I wouldn’t think of doing anything to make there be light EXCEPT turning on the light. So to make the room light I give it more light. You couldn’t add more darkness into a dark room to try to make it light, that’s not even possible. Darkness is not a thing that can be expanded, it is just the absence of the light.

Now apply this to love and fear/hate. If there is an absence of love in any given situation … let’s say, for example, 2 of my kids are fighting. They are fighting and they are focused very much on being angry and hurt and retaliation. In that moment there is an absence of love. I see that by acknowledging that the natural state of our being is love, and love causes peace and joy … good feelings. The absence of that love causes anger, fear, retaliation … fighting!

What do I do then? Well, I apply the light/dark room principle. I see that love is called for. I couldn’t possibly think to help the situation by ADDING to the absence of love through getting angry myself, or harshly condemning their behavior, or yelling or any of those things. Those things are ALSO absence of love, and wouldn’t help. Like trying to lighten a room with darkness, it’s not even possible. So too is this … the only thing to do here in this situation is to SPREAD love, ADD love, GIVE love. THAT is how it is brought around to be healed. That is the only way to end the fighting and shift the energy of that situation.

I have DONE this … I have used this principle with my kids. I did it last night actually. My 4 year old came into my room at 10:00 pm for the 4th time AFTER she had been put to bed, and I was tired and frustrated and just wanted her to go to sleep. I looked at her and she was crying and I WANTED to be stern and tell her that it was after bedtime and she had already been tucked in and to get to bed. I REALLY wanted to say that. I was sort of angry actually. But I took a deep breath and looked at the tears on her face and realized in this moment there was an absence of peace for her, an absence of well being, an absence of love. It would not help her to have me feed that absence through my anger and frustration. Sure maybe she’d go to bed, but she’d not go to bed in a good energy and it wouldn’t be what I would choose for her if I was in a loving spot.

And so, I made a choice in that moment and didn’t release my frustration upon her. I didn’t get angry. I didn’t say stern things. I let her put her head on my shoulder and cry and I rubbed her back. I allowed her those few minutes of connection she obviously needed and just let her be. I didn’t say anything to her, I rubbed her back until she sat up and then I calmly and lovingly said “ok, it’s time to sleep now. I love you” and she ran upstairs and went to bed.

This works. This is the way to heal. This is the way to change the world. It is not by adding to the negative energy in the world … that won’t heal or help anything or anyone. The only way to change the world in a positive way is to ADD to the love and peace that is so absent. The absence is CALLING for us to shift into love. The absence is a gaping hole that needs to be filled … and not filled with more absence, but filled with love. And joy. Any amount of healing you can offer the world, through loving and joyfully living lifts us all.

I know that maybe changing the world seems like a big almost insurmountable endeavor. But we are each a part of the world, and together, as a unified whole, we CAN do big things! When I change my perception and heal the world around ME, I have done a huge thing. When you change your perception and heal the world around YOU, you have done a huge thing. It isn’t the number of people you see that you influence that changes the world, it is the shift in energy that takes place when you yourself are changed. And that shift ripples out from you to your kids, to your family, to your friends to your co workers, and each tiny shift of energy CAN affect big change.

I hope you begin to see what an impact you can have on the world around you. It is monumental. You are not a tiny thing with no power, you are a mighty being with limitless power! See that! Know that. You can do EVERYTHING to change the world. There is truly no point in believing you are powerless but EVERY little thing in your life will change when you understand your power.

I hope you choose to see it, and to see that power comes through our ability to heal and to love and to offer peace when we’re able. I am doing that in my life and it has blessed me and continues to amaze me at the changes that can occur when love is poured into the holes that its absence makes. It’s not hard to love … it’s actually amazing and easy and RELIEVING. And when you are aware enough to stop the “natural” human reactions, like getting angry and frustrated and indignant … you can see that you get to choose how you respond and love FEELS better.

Black and white. Light and dark. Love and fear … I’m grateful for the patterns in the world; I’ll tell you the “aha” moments continue.