So here we go.
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I just had a morning altering experience. I opened a fresh box of Crayola crayons today.
Let me back up. I’ve been laid up in bed with strep for 3 days, along with my 2 year old that also has strep, and I am also nursing my 2 month old around the clock. I am therefore exhausted, depleted and was not looking forward to spending an entire day home today, since we’re all contagious.
My son got a lot of presents for Hanukkah, including one of them a really nice coloring book from my sister (Thanks Ruchie!). She also thoughtfully included a box of crayons to go with it, a box we sorely needed since all of our cheap dollar store crayons are in several pieces scattered throughout the house. The box she bought had 24 crayons and proudly proclaimed ‘preferred by teachers’ (which she is). A nice size box I thought. Not too small, (8 crayons is really not enough), but not too overwhelming like 64 or more.
I opened the box carefully and peeked inside. I gasped. It was beautiful. All the little guys tucked neatly and perfectly into their places. All perfectly pointy and straight, smelling fresh and waxy and new. My son leaned over to check out what was fascinating his usually distracted mother. He peered into the box, turned back to me, and with the sweetest two year old voice asked a very simple question. “Which one, Mommy”? Which one indeed.
I let him pick. He reached his little hand in and handed me a yellow one. I mean, a yewwow one. Yellow was simple, I could handle yellow. I colored the stem of a dreidel. I asked my son for another crayon. He handed me ‘a difint yewwow one’. Hmm okay yellow is yellow right? Nope. It was a completely different color. Dandelion. A beautiful name for an unassuming color. I then discovered something amazing. There are blue and red and orange and black and white crayons. All predictable, all expected and all beautiful. But there is also red-orange and orange-yellow and green-yellow and blue-green and blue-violet and red-violet…I could go on and on. Every single color is beautiful and more remarkably, every color is true to its name. The blue-green is actually blue-green, like a foamy ocean. The blue-violet hints of a setting sun at twilight, just before the sky goes black. Carnation pink had me imagining a beautiful meadow of flowers, just waiting to be picked. I could taste the sweetness of the fruit in the light pale orange of apricot. As we picked through the crayons one by one, I found myself fascinated with every new color combination
As a graphic designer, I am well aware that the only difference between all these colors is a series of RGB and color codes carefully calibrated to produce pigment mixtures. That’s what my logical, literal thinking adult brain knows. My kindergarten brain sees an entirely different picture. My kindergarten brain sees dandelions and apricots and blue-green oceans and skies. Because how else can the ocean be described except for blue-green?
I returned to the box later in the afternoon and found I had a little half smile on my face as we colored again. Somehow it never gets old. Now at the end of the day, even though all the crayons are on the floor, the box is bent and one perfect crayon got its head cracked off, I still marvel at the little crayons, and how after so many years, they still bring out the child in me.
So now sitting here with the computer on split screen, with my son looking over my shoulder watching a video so I can type this, I took a minute to type out my thoughts. I wonder if they would have looked better in apricot.
Hey it's me again. Thanks Charnie! There's really nothing like a new box of crayons. Anyone out there feel the same way or is it just our family?
I'll be back next week with a super easy DIY that is perfect for the new year. Have a great weekend!
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