The Color Wheel

Elizabeth has a pink room. It is a typical little girls room, pink with a Disney Princess bed spread ensemble. Well most of it is typical. she does have a green glass spider dangling from a spring below a shelf but otherwise completely pink.

A while ago she told me she had outgrown the Disney Princess theme and longed for something different. Dogs perhaps, or spots and maybe some stripes. I thought it odd that at age 5, she'd be through with princesses but we flipped the comforter over so it was solid pink and I suggested she think about it for a while. She thought and thought and soon I forgot but she was still thinking.

Enter older brother, who wants his room painted Yankees and Cowboys Blue. All of which reminds Elizabeth that it is time to stop thinking and announce her decision.

"I have decided on a color."


" What is it?" I cringe as Andy asks her and I repeat to myself "please don't say black, please don't say black."

"Red."

Am I ready for red? I liked pink. Pink was soft and quite, peaceful and passive. Red is full of energy, loud and passionate. Red is angry and dangerous.

I look at Elizabeth and realize my mistake. She is not pink. She is not passive, not quiet and not peaceful and I couldn't be prouder of that. She is loud, passionate, strong, angry and even dangerous (depending on when you cross her path) and I love her for it. She has all of those qualities of a girl who drenches each day with her imagination and who spends the night spinning a web of adventures for her own amusement come sunrise.

So to all the little girls out there who find themselves stuck in pink, grab a paint brush and paint yourself a path that leads to red