Bringing colour to life

Bringing colour to life

When one thinks “brown”, do you think of chocolate? Whether it’s a mousse or a sauce to go over creamy ice cream or brownies that melt in your mouth, or the soft, slow dissolve on the tongue of a Swiss slab, they’re all happy “brown thoughts”. It wasn’t always that way. There weren’t any chockie experiences in my early years, but there were many brown moments, that weren’t nearly so tasty.

The overwhelming heaviness of a huge brown brick building loomed large in my six-year old vision, combined with the brown shoes and socks and dark brown dress and the brown felt hat. This was the colour of a heavy little heart, parting from her mother and stepping into the unknown.

The day had begun with my very longhair being cropped into a style that my little fingers could manage. Over and over, I had been shown how to tie shoelaces. It was time to be independent of help and there wouldn’t be a rescuer if I tangled my hair or my shoelaces. Many had survived boarding school (although I couldn’t call to mind any of their hardy faces) it wasn’t going to be all brown days… there were bound to be dark grey days too! Homesickness wasn’t an option for us farm reared children who were about to be transformed from free-range into battery-chickens in dormitories with long lines of brown-blanketted beds.

The beauty and freedom of the bush had been replaced with a monotone. There were fourteen little pink rabbits staring into the headlights of matron who towered in the doorway of “Dorm 1”. I would soon get into trouble for unwittingly drawing an unflattering picture of matron because she had many folds of skin around her neck and I’d never seen an old person close up. My innocence was shattered when an older girl said it was unkind to draw a picture of an old person when making a birthday card (especially a close up “portrait”). Everybody over the age of 20yrs appeared old so instead I drew portraits in the sand with a twig – it was a happy combination of an artistic outlet and playing in the dirt – what a wonderful pastime. The brown dirt had it’s own little movie screen of ants, beetles and best of all, those crafty little antlions, who make conical sandtraps to capture ants to eat. Little brown antlions soon grow up to be exquisite dragonflies and that was inspiration enough for me.

After the Deluge, which is recorded in the Holy Bible, God promised never to destroy everything on the earth by flood again and He gave the world the sign of a rainbow in the clouds to remind us that God would keep His word for ever. He sent a blessing with it too, the blessing of enjoying all of His creation, even the thin strip of brown in it.

After rains, a rainbow can often be seen there in the clouds. It’s a reminder to keep looking up and looking toward God – He is close.