Reverb12 Day Eighteen: The Color of Me

tyunglebower ♦ December 18, 2012 ♦ 4 Comments

What color best represents the year you had in 2012? And why?

What color would you like to invite into your life in 2013? 

As soon as I read this prompt, I thought of what I am calling faded purple.

Purple was traditionally a color reserved for royalty, so they say. The natural components to make purple pigments were uncommon and expensive for a time, and monarchs were generally the only ones who could afford them in any significant quantity. Thus purple became a symbol of both their wealth and later, their authority.

Though no longer exclusive to royalty, purple nonetheless continues to denote a certain uniqueness. An extravagant boldness if you will. Purple, in any context, tends to stand out among the other colors.

I went into 2012 with a sort of purple expectation in a sense. I started this blog, began a tighter focus on my freelancing business, and began a few new endeavors, all under the assumption of standing out and being quite royal in a sense compared to some of my peers and more so, compared to my recent history.

It didn’t quite occur the way I expected or hoped in several aspects of my life in 2012. And as time wore on and plans became memories without the intervening intoxication of success, part of my spirituality slowed. A few small ruts were formed. A wheel spun here and there. All and all the bold and at time audacious predictions and plans I made for 2012 began to lose potency. To fade, if you will. My purple faded.

And faded some more, and a little more. Despite some notable successes, the overall effect on the color of my year does seem to have been a dampening of the hue. Color bleached out by exposure to the elements for too long without reprieve.

A bit depressing and more than a little frustrating. But still purple. One may have to squint to determine it as such, but the color of the year is still purple. Even, dare I say it, somewhat royal purple after all.

That is the color of 2012 for me. Faded purple.

As for inviting color into my life in 2013, perhaps black and gold. Not the black of despair and hopelessness, but the black of deep rich soil into which I can plant many a crop. Golden not like the sunken treasures of pirates or proverbial doubloons, but of sunlight illuminated everything just a bit more than it has for a while, warming the aforementioned seeds.

Purple for 2012. Black and gold for 2013. Symbolic to be sure, but in both cases the colors just feel right to match the mood.