Greenishness

Green.


Envy, leaves, grass, emeralds, olives, and jade are some of the things that I think of when I see green.


Oh, and celery.


Don't forget frogs, wintergreen, Christmas trees, soybean fields, and the carpet in our house. (Seriously. What were they thinking?)


Neither my wife nor I can wear much green because it tends to make us look sick. I guess that's the Scandinavian ancestry showing through. But green is such a great color. It's cool because it's the fern grotto at the bottom of a waterfall. It's the complicated photosynthesis equations I had to memorize in Plant Physiology (I'll admit to actually enjoying that in a nerdy kind of way). But most of all, it's the energy of living things. In the summer, there are millions of leaves all busily converting light energy into sugars. In the spring there are hundreds of little baby grasshoppers trying to make their way. In the winter, there's the rush of the holiday season (Christmas for us), with the endless shopping, filling jewelry orders, and decorating our Christmas tree. (OK, trees. As in 4 or 5). And the fall? Hmm. Today, I noticed the tiny shoots of green grass sprouting in my lawn's bare patches. (Of course, I also noticed the green aphids on my azaleas - grrr!)


As I look back on a weekend of an outdoor art show with perfect weather (I was a spectator for once!), a NHL preseason hockey game (our first ever in person!), seeding the grass, and hours and hours (like about 8!) of grading papers, I feel fortunate. That's it - lucky. I feel green all over with leprechaun-ish luck for the job that will always dish out the green no matter what the economy does. But most of all, I appreciate my wife, my kids, and my family.


Oh. right. ...and my art. Because without that, I'd be seeing red instead of green.


How lucky are you today?
Pastel Guy