Colours of life - Rainbow of Love

I

Yesterday during one of my lessons, I asked a student of mine, "What colour do you normally associate with happiness?". Somehow surprisingly I must say, she answered "I guess that every colour symbolises happiness". I was impressed not only by the tone she was saying this, but also the conviction that found pace between the pitch of her voice and her facial gestures.

Amazed, I leaned back in my chair and crossed my hands over my head and for seconds I thought about the answer. For milliseconds I wasn't in the room.

Moments like this come rarely but I have the tendency to call them, "The student teaches the teacher" moments. Yesterday was such a moment. I eagerly listened to her answer, which was full of conviction, sincerity and truth.

And needless to say because of such a simple statement, such thoughts usually trigger my imagination. I thanked her for sharing that as I then knew what the topic of my next blog would be.

Sometimes we realise, if we stop to listen to our heart beat and think, look around us, we realise that we meet people everyday. Colleagues, friends, family, strangers etc. We find ourselves in a mixture of faces looking at us, smiling at us, making fun of us, laughing at us, giving us that devilish look. People are dying, babies are being born, and young ones are falling in love for the first time...all this transmitting colours - different colours of happiness.

II

He was one of my childhood idols. He still is. According to the church, though, we shouldn't idolise human beings, we should only idolise God. Well & good. I now agree.

But finding myself in front of this painting in Amsterdam...hmmm... it just left me breathless...a genius that suffocated in his own madness, yet gave us the most beautiful yet expensive paintings in the world. A couple of years ago, in the list of the 10 most expensive paintings, he had 3.

I was now looking at one of them. Sunflowers. Yes it was Van Gogh.

The colours that he painted over a century ago are still there, they still transmit positivity and madness. They still make millions of people breathless. They still are being complimented. Their creator died long time ago.

III

Sometimes, we might think that revenge is the only solution to things. Sometimes, we might think that showing how powerful we are is the only way to solve our problems. Sometimes, by dividing ourselves from the rest, gapping religions, ethnicities and culture, we might think that we are the next unknown soldiers, next unknown heroes.

But life is not that easy. And yes I admit, life isn't always made of colours, life isn't always a rainbow. Others won't just let it be so for us.

But the problem lies in the fact, that we look at others and we don't see how we can improve things. We accuse others, but we don't see what we could have done better. We point fingers, continuously and then we just don't like it, when we are criticised.

IV

Yes, today we have to look further than we normally do, more than our eyesight can ever give us. Give your life that divine look. Glance at your life from a different perspective. Let the colours of happiness be transmitted to others. Let happiness be contagious. You don’t need purified blessed water to bless...A smile would do.

Have a life full of rainbows and positive colours, people, but more importantly, give it and share it with others.

Jack
5.1.11