Why opening a fresh box of crayons still makes me smile

I went downtown yesterday to pick up a few things, and crayons were on the list for my 3 and 5 year old grandsons. I had lost my big bag of crayons in the move. Crayons and color are, of course, essential.

Just now I walked by the two little boxes of Crayola crayons where I had set them on the stool yesterday, picked one up and opened it just to look at them, because quite honestly there's something about opening a new box of crayons that's exciting at any age in my humble opinion - so much potential for creation!

Sure enough I open the box and my heart instantly started to smile. These crayons represent so much more than colored wax sticks.

First of all, crayons, and specifically Crayola instantly make me think of my son Tyler, who as an artist has worked with different mediums throughout his life and one long phase he went through was creating large and small scale melted wax crayon art. He's exceptionally talented. I say that both as his mom but being objective, he's gifted. He has won awards for most Innovative from the Badlands Art Association out in North Dakota several years back and has done quite a bit of commissioned work over the years. He has now moved on to creating gorgeous hand carved wooden pipes, but as a melted crayon artist Tyler practically owned stock in the Crayola company, and I got a kick out of his large totes, full of brand new Crayola crayons!

Totes of crayons, a finished piece of Tyler's art created with melted crayons, and an action shot I have of him starting to create something when I visited back then.

This was a wonderful article that was written about Tyler 11 years ago now. I tried to include the link but it doesn't let you read, as I don't subscribe to the Dickinson Press.

Next, art, color and creating in general has always been a big part of my life, even though I haven't been the one to create the actual art; well, photography has always been a passion. My mother was also an artist, though she didn't call herself that. She had a passion for putting colors together on the pallet; and she loved to paint, sketch, and color. My daughter is also a gifted artist both with painting and singing. However at age 28 with a 3 and 5-year-old, she doesn't have very much time to explore that right now, but, I do see that she occasionally creates the space for herself when the boys are settled to paint and that makes my heart happy!

A few years back I did try my hand at painting for the first time and kinda surprised myself; I'm not terrible and it was a lot of fun, but haven't picked it up again. I'm starting to feel the itch again though.

Now, take the colors themsleves. If you know me at all you know that in the last decade plus of my life I have embraced color in a big way after living most of my life wearing quite neutral tones. There are times when I look down at myself now and see the whole spectrum held within a box of crayons!

But what I now also know is that colors are healing "tools". Some common things we know now for instance are that red is associated with passion, love, excitement and rage, but it's also associated with the Root Chakra which is grounding and feeling safe in your body and in your world, therefore healing. There is color therapy available everywhere; as actual color therapy, light therapy, visual art, minerals and stones, astrology...it goes on and on. You can create your own color therapy by the choices that you choose to wear on any given day to support your mood.

Oh dear, and I completely forgot to talk about my love of color as it relates to rainbows, speaking of smiles and symbols of Hope! I know everyone loves rainbows, but I have always always been super excited about them and they have had many profound messages for me along the way.

I have spent some time these days reflecting on what jazzed me up, before I was an adult. It's always been the sky, the earth, music, art and dance. And color. I remembered recently that one of my first science projects I ever did, probably in Jr High, was on color!

Another recent heart-smiling conversation that I had with my grandchildren was about color. It knocked my socks off when 5 year old Frankie recently told me about the three basic colors and how they combined to make new colors and knew some of them!

I guess I could talk forever about color and how it is impacted my life.

PSA - even the simple act of coloring is an incredible therapy when you have a lot on your mind or you're stressed out. Coloring can help you relax and focus, kind of like a meditation for the hands.

So as much as I am not a fan of big business these days I am eternally grateful to Crayola crayon company specifically, for providing me with so much happiness over my 59 years!