A gift from nature and the beauty of yellow

I'm sure you all know those days, when everything just gets a bit too much, and all we can see is all the things that are not right in our lives, and none of the positive, good things that are there too. On those days, we just want to pull the covers over our heads and feel really really sorry for ourselves, before we can pick ourselves up again, and get on with it.

I've been trying to make some changes in my life for the past few years, but I feel that I haven't managed to achieve a single one of them yet. It's frustrating, and it is hard to keep focusing on the positive, and acknowledging my achievements at times. Last week, I was feeling really down and just overwhelmed by everything, when, on the way to the station after work, I saw a perfect rainbow stretching over the field. With pouring rain, sunshine, and a light shower again all within half an hour, this wasn't really such a great surprise, but I decided to take this beautiful gift from nature as an inspiration to make a serious effort of focusing on the positive, the good, on the little every day gifts that are all around. It may still take some time for those changes to happen, but I'm sure that the journey is easier and more joyful when you paint it in all the colours of the rainbow instead of only seeing grey.

The day after my rainbow, I happened to read Kristin's blogpost about changes in your perspective, with a link to Liv Lanes blog. I had to smile when I read Liv's "about the blog" post, and how she saw a rainbow while sitting in traffic, and how it made her begin to focus on the positive. I really like her idea of taking a picture of something beautiful every day for 365 days. I think that capturing and recording those pleasures helps to stay focused and it will give you something to look back to for the bad days. I'm thinking of doing a little project of my own, or at least making a bit more of a conscious effort to capture and record the everyday good, with my camera, in my sketchbook, or just with a few words in my notebook or diary. I made a sketch of the rainbow into my sketchbook when I got home - and actually managed to get the order of the colours wrong, despite having a reference to work with, how embarrassing is that!!.

The following day, I went out for a walk during my lunch break with my little Moleskine sketchbook to  look for something beautiful to capture. I chose these rape seed flowers very much on purpose. Because

a) yellow is probably my leasts favourite colour, and
b) I find yellow flowers, to be completely honest, quite ugly really

So why then choose these yellow rape seed flowers for my "beauty of the day" to begin my conscious search for every day beauty? Because those rape seed fields that cover the landscape with yellow patches everywhere around, and those tiny, delicate and very very yellow flowers are very beautiful, even if my personal colour aesthetics is not able to fully appreciate them the way they deserve. 

There's a danger of getting too stuck in your ways, inside your little bubble, when you tend to stick too much with what you like, what feels comfortable, what you're used to, and ignore the rest. When your little bubble bursts, you might find yourself unable to handle it, and you'll end up putting all your energy into desperately trying to hold on to what's gone, and unable to cope and move on and embrace the new possibilities. So peeping out of your comfortable bubble and seeing what else is around from time to time can only benefit your journey. Leaving our comfort zone at times will help us to be better prepared to cope with change, with our lives, to move on and make the best of it and shine.

As it happenend, "rainbow" was also last week's theme of the Artist's Play Room Challenge. I didn't manage to post this blog post last week, but I'm linking up to it anyway. It's just such a great coincidence. Have a look what the other participants came up with for the theme. Such a burst of colours, and so inspiring.

I'm really sorry for not having caught up with anyone these past few days, but I really just needed these days for myself, to think and re-focus. I'll do my best to catch up visiting your blogs during the rest of the week.