Have you ever noticed when a color you don’t usually see seems to pop up all around you? Last Sunday I hit some kind of tipping point with the color orange.

 

I love orange! It was my favorite color before green.

 

I remember that, 9. When we first moved into the family house in 1962 my sister and I got to pick the paint color for our bedroom floors. She picked red.

 

And we picked orange!

 

And now it’s green.

 

Thanks for the update, Lily (Reader, if you are new to this blog my co-authors are Lily, my inner 14-year-old, and 9, my inner 9-year-old). Both orange and green are secondary colors, mixed from the primary colors yellow and red, and yellow and blue, respectively. Orange and blue are complimentary colors. Here’s an example:

 

 

 

According to someone or other online “Complimentary colors tend to be bold, which is why sports teams often use this formula for their colors.”

 

Sports. Not exactly us.

 

Too true, Lily. Our recreational activities lean more toward reading, performing, and modeling in fashion shows. As a matter of fact, the color orange appeared at the Kirkman House Museum Tea and Fashion Show last Sunday:

 

It might surprise the two of you to know that we get enrolled in the John Robert Powers School of Finishing and Modeling (as it was called in 1975). Part of the curriculum was learning how to assemble a “basic” wardrobe. We learned which lines and designs flattered different figures and what colors went best with different skin tones. As for the color orange I remember their dictate verbatim:

 

“Orange flatters no one.”

 

That’s just mean!

 

I agree, 9. We’ve had a long, warm relationship with the color orange. Even now it’s the color of my very favorite scarf, given to me by my friend Ginger sometime in the last century:

 

 

 

Orange even figured in our first career choice. Do either of you remember what that decision was and when we made it?

 

As I recall we were two years old.

And we wanted to be an orangey kitty.

 

Right on both counts! Sadly, this goal proved unattainable; we pivoted to being a sheepdog, instead.

 

We pulled that off for about a year.

 

The grandmas got mad, though, at our third birthday party when we licked their faces instead of kissing them.

 

And there was the incident with the very drunk man at Skyline Marina in Anacortes. We were on a family boat trip on the Caveat, our Thunderbird. Mom and I had gone ashore for some reason and were returning to the boat. The drunk man said to Mom, “That’s a nice little girl you have there.” I said, “I’m not a little girl, I’m a sheepdog!”

 

He looked pretty confused.

 

That career went down the drain, too.

 

But I remain true to the color orange! Orange is said to burst with youthfulness, energy and happiness, to inspire creativity and uplift people’s moods. In spiritual matters it is associated with meditation and compassion. In terms of chakras it’s associated with- -on second thought, I’ll let the adults who are reading this look it up on their own.

 

Does it have something to do with kissing?

 

We’ll talk about it later, 9.

 

It’s refreshing to renew my awareness of the color orange, a hue with much to recommend it. Keep your eyes open for a color that persistently shows up in your life and enjoy the exploration!