The coloring book.

There are days where I wake up and that feeling is still there. You know--that one. The feeling of depression, hopelessness, despair.

For as good and as great as my days and life have been lately, I still get them. Those days.

I don't like waking up like that. Feeling empty and purposeless inside. Feeling dead--numb to the world and apathetic to my relationships. Feeling like my life doesn't matter, that life itself doesn't matter. The worst is feeling nothing at all--no pain, no anxiety. Just blank. A canvas that has lost its color and substituted all that beauty for grey. For nothing.

Well, if therapy (and being a counseling graduate student) has taught me anything thus far it is that I have the power to PAINT IN ALL THE COLORS I WANT. I have the choice to use whatever materials I can handle, really. Newspaper, yarn, chalk, pastels--they are all mine and my responsibility to engage. Art doesn't just happen on its own--you have to create it.

I think that life, by in large, is very similar. There is a whole lot of mystery out there--a whole lot of beauty and love and peace that is meant to be experienced--that needs to be experienced by someone. Its pretty easy to get stuck in routine. We get caught up in our schedules and our responsibilities. We forget how to color outside the lines. We forget to find joy and and meaning in the world around us. Most of all, we forget ourselves. We dress ourselves in grey and substitute the canvas for a coloring book. We want direction, not imagination. We crave control and exchange adventure for what seems safest.

Ultimately, we lose.

LIFE is WAITING. It's there, just for you. There is so much, so much good to be done in the world. Hope is a possibility--for you, for others. We have dreams to fulfill, our own dreams as well as the dreams of others. You can change, and in turn, change the world.

So today, when you catch yourself in a cycle you don't want to be in, do something. Anything--take a walk, watch the sunset, ask a friend to get coffee. Don't stay in your cubicle and color in that damn coloring book. Buy a canvas, fill it with color. And in the same way, color your days with the things that are important--the beauty of love, laughter, and always life.