Shades of Yellow

Growing up in western New York, an area dense with maple trees, autumn meant vibrant red and orange leaves for viewing, raking, and burning.  While I’m still partial to those colors for autumn, I’ve gained a great appreciation for the yellows and golds prevalent here in the Midwest and have adopted yellow as my fall color.

A primary color, yellow signifies joy, wisdom and intellectual energy, which is maybe why yellow pads of paper are associated with certain professions and canary Post-Its are the most common. Yellow slickers keep us dry in all seasons when we are outdoors and a yellow ducky helps kids enjoy the water inside.  

Perhaps because yellow is the first color the eye recognizes, it is the color of caution or warning, but in some cities a yellow traffic light means that drivers still pull into the intersection to turn left or a pedestrian considers it safe to cross the street.  Look for yellow school buses and taxicabs in Western cultures.  Recall the famous Yellow Submarine.  Enjoy rich butter on warm croissants, but remember it was the color of the required Star of David patches sewn onto clothing worn by Jews during World War II. Buddhist monks wear yellow robes.  While yellow universally makes us think of gold and wealth, it is also the color of cowardice and sensational journalism. 

Yellow is an optimistic color.  Cheery chrysanthemums brighten our days as we gear up for winter, both the season and phase of our lives.  Songwriter Ervin Drake wrote, “But now the days grow short, I’m in the autumn of the year, and I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs...”  I had a hard time knowing I was entering my autumn years, although now that I’m in them, I’m thriving. 

It takes courage and hope to let go of the things of summer, to know that the fruits of that season are done.  But fall brings us squash growing on vines on the solid earth and apples ripening on sturdy trees.  In our autumn years we find new things that ground us and a variety of golden and delicious ways to continue to grow.  Whether you’re still in spring enjoying forsythia and daffodils, in sunny summer, golden autumn like me, or have become like saffron, enriched and very valuable, may there be cadmium yellow both inside and outside for you today.

Marilyn

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. Maya Angelou, poet