Finding Colour on a Grey Day
By Emily Marsten, Features Editor
This summer has been full of the colour ‘grey’. ‘Grey’ in the sense that there has been an all-encompassing feeling that life can be a total bummer. ‘Grey’ politics, ‘grey’ health, ‘grey’ skies and an overall ‘grey’ feeling.
Sometimes, we need to actively find the colour that is all around us — literally.
I was taking a walk around my neighbourhood. I could practically taste the smoke from all the forest fires that have been happening, and when I looked up at the grey sky around me I was sick of it. So instead, I decided to look around for colour.
I could dig out my thesaurus and dazzle you with my use of colours like cerulean, carmine and orcherous, but I prefer to stick with the basics. So if these colours aren’t quite colourful enough for you, take a walk around your own neighbourhood and see what colours you can find.
Colours like a tiny pink wagon that sits beside my neighbour’s lawn — often occupied by a little girl who toddles around in the sunshine.
Colours like the purple flowers that I can’t name, peeking out from well-kept lawns. Green trees speckled with yellowing leaves. Blue shutters decorating window sills, or even the fading yellow paint disguising a house.
Colours like a red SUV, a white Smart Car, freshly trimmed green grass and the bright sun that somehow was transformed into an otherworldly orange colour.
Colours like purple leaves, brown fence rails, silver lamp posts, orange tiger lily flowers and a freshly painted green door.
The point of this isn’t to tell you about some generic colours that can be found around your neighbourhood, the point is to remind you that these colours exist. Sometimes the only thing that we can actually see or feel is ‘grey’, until we take a moment to actively look for a little colour.