Dear Reader:

I am not sure who came up with the idea that the color “yellow” should stand for cowardice or treachery, but I think he got it wrong.

Take a minute and think about the first colors of plants and flowers that we see in pre-early spring, in the gloomy cold days we are experiencing right now…Yellow! To me these yellow plants and blooms symbolize courage and boldness to break first through the frozen ground… in order to pioneer the way for the late-bloomers.

Yellow is the most luminous of all the colors of the spectrum. It’s the color that captures our attention more than any other color…representing happiness, optimism,  enlightenment, creativity, sunshine and spring.

I decided to walk around my garden, yard, and neighborhood to demonstrate the yellow ‘leaders of the pack.’                                    

In my neighbor Vickie’s yard…by her mailbox… she has planted jonquin/daffodils…they were a little beat down by the rain when I took this first photo…but with just one day of sunshine (Please Lord!)  they will have their pretty faces up and smiling.

I had forgotten that I planted forsythia by the fence last year (in fact I forgot the name too…had to send this picture to Doodle to remind me what it was.) In all the dreariness, cold, and rain of the last few days it has started blooming with much more promise to come.

And then, of course, the Yellow Jessamine… who has been playing it pretty cautious. A few buds have emerged but they seem to realize that they need to stay “tight” a little longer.

And speaking of “cautious” ….think about what color all caution signs are…yellow! Yellow is the color of traffic lights and signs indicating caution all over the world because it is the most eye-catching of all the colors on the spectrum.

When I re-did my den (turning it into my happy room) several years ago… I purposefully chose yellow for the dining area and den….because it just plain makes me happy. I then stucco’ed the gray dreary brick behind the fireplace/mantle a deep orange…and the rest, as they say is history.

The color yellow reminds me of a chameleon… the yellow on my walls change color continuously during the day…depending on the sun’s rays filtering in and the lighting effect from lamps and ceiling lights. On any given day I can have “50 Shades of Yellow” (sorry…couldn’t resist the pun.)

My favorite time of all (with yellow walls) is at night. Yellow turns cozy…in every sense of the word. My den and dining room make me feel secure and happy in the evenings.

Here are some examples of the yellow walls responding to sunlight and man-made light… (the first two pictures are of the same dining room…taken at the same time)

Here are some other walls around the den…again displaying various shades of yellow…according to the amount of light filtering in…

When I stand on the deck and look out over my garden…it is the yellow in shrubs and bushes that stand out, yellow pansies smiling in spite of the cold…it is as if “yellow” is the calling card to spring saying, “ Don’t give up…look at what is coming!”

From now on if someone calls us “yellow” I think we should take it as a compliment. Yellow is believing in the (as Madeleine L’Engle said) “gloriously impossible.”

Believing that these little plants will hear the “call of God” and break through frozen tundra to bring the ‘good news” that the re-birth of life and nature is near.

…Not falling back on our practical, reasoning ability…but opening ourselves to the possibilities that reasoning can’t understand.

This is the irrational season

When love blooms bright and wild

Had Mary been filled with reason

There’d have been no room for the child.

…………………

So until tomorrow…let us wait with certainty that spring will come and when it does it will be “gloriously and impossibly” breath-taking.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh