The color orange is everywhere today. It’s completely invaded my usually green running world. Maple trees are cloaked in a spectacular blaze of fluorescent red-orange. The still-lit street lamps lining the roads have an eerie orange glow about them, and leftover rotting pumpkin corpses sag here and there as far as the eye can see. Even the sky has a scattering of orange across it. I love the color orange in nature, but it’s not a color you will find in my closet. It just doesn’t look good on me.
As a child I was the color purple. The color purple filled me with magic and fantasy. It was the color of fairy princesses and magical castles; of mythical creatures and enchanted lands.
In the 80’s I was a “winter” according to the popular color draping analysis fad which was hot back then. Wearing the colors of winter apparently made my eyes sparkle and shine and gave my skin a healthy, flawless glow. I was promised I would look years younger and would feel healthier and slimmer which would then give me oodles of self confidence.
According to most color quizzes, I’m a “blue” which is the color of peace and tranquility. Blue is apparently a good color to wear to a job interview because it also symbolizes loyalty. I look good in the color blue.
But of all the colors, I feel most like the color green these days. Forest green to be exact. Green is life. It is abundant in nature and signifies growth, renewal, health and environment. To me it is a restful color. It is also the color for “go” on a traffic light and is strongly associated with the Irish, which is fitting as I have a lot of Irish in me. I also have a green thumb and my birthstone for the month of May is emerald. On the flip or negative side, green is jealousy or envy (green-eyed monster) and if you are a “greenhorn” you are inexperienced. I’ve definitely been a green-eyed monster and a greenhorn at one time or another. Yes I am definitely green. Green rules my world.
But today is different. It is the day after Halloween and maybe there is still some of that Halloween magic in the air. Orange magic. I try to drink in the orangeness around me. Orange is a power color and one of the healing colors. It is associated with the benign warmth of the sun. It stimulates enthusiasm and creativity. A dynamic color to be sure. And apparently if a change of any kind is needed in life, burning an orange candle for 7 nights will bring that change. Just as fall marks the transition from summer into winter, orange in nature also signifies change. From warmer to cooler weather. From longer to shorter days. From the color green in the forest to brown, or even white when winter arrives. The color orange does not look good on me, but still I am enjoying it’s energy and vibes as soon I will hear winter’s song and running will take on a whole new look and feel.
It is a perfect run on a sublime morning made this way by all the elements of nature which have come together perfectly to make a dazzling spectacle in full autumn dress. As the seasons change and take on different colors, so do we as we journey through the different seasons of our lives. And as I continue on my run I get a glimpse of myself sometime in the distant future and what I see makes me smile. I see the color purple once again.
"Sweet and smiling are thy ways. Beauteous gold Autumn days.”
- Will Carleton
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