Colours of life

Right now my life is colourful - it wasn't always like that. For some years I wore almost exclusively black - a very difficult time back then...
It was impossible for me to wear red for a long time.

But this is more about colours than clothes - colours of life.

Colours that surround us - in clothes, wall paint, art, living space, fashion, technology, work .... - affect us and we influence them. We use colours consciously or unconsciously to express feelings, to send signals or because we expect them to have an effect. We invent colour tones and patterns. Colours can warn us and we can lose all colour and see completely black. We use colours for rituals and e.g. in the Catholic Church consciously in the liturgy. Life without colour is colourless.

In the picture we see a painter with her colourful palette - I met her in Vienna.

According to Wikipedia, a colour is a sensory impression conveyed by the eye and brain, which is caused by light. The colours of the rainbow, for example, are atmospheric light phenomena caused by refraction, reflection and diffraction of sun rays.  
 
Every age, every stage of life will have its own individual colour for each person. Every day can bring new shades - a little brighter or darker. Supposedly uniform times - full of routine and with repetitive processes - could appear like a striped pattern and times of joie de vivre and joy in flowers or dots. There are the muted earthy tones, bright yellow and orange full of power and energy. The black of farewell and loss - or of clarity - is there, will always be there.

What is important to me in all the reflections is to appreciate and accept all the colours and patterns of our lives. "It's like this now!" is written on a sign I see every day. What appears to be completely black today, can tomorrow already result in a small pattern with grey speckles and light and confidence can grow out of it. We have it in our hands to change the colour of our lives - with God's help.

I would like to encourage you to think about the colour of your life.

• What colour is my heart wearing right now?  
• How colourful can or should my life be?
• Which colour of life do I like to share or not at all?

There is a prayer for life colours that I would like to share here.

Uta Fielitz
Weggemeinschaft der
St. Franziskusschwestern von
Vierzehnheiligen