Coloring My World
About five years ago my world turned upside-down…My husband of 36 years passed away. I was understandably distraught. At times I didn’t know how I would make it from one hour to the next, much less live day to day without my life’s partner. In grief and such an upheaval of your very existence many things in your life change, and you just need to learn how to adapt and cope.
Enter Coloring! After about 5 months I felt I needed an outlet, something to do mentally to relieve some of the grief and pain. I decided to color. I don’t know why coloring came to mind, since adults coloring wasn’t yet a thing. No one I knew was coloring; except children of course.
So I bought myself some adult coloring books. And no, adult coloring books aren’t pornographic — rather the pictures are not cartoon-like, as is the case in typical children’s coloring books. Instead the pictures in adult coloring books are very detailed and subjects are typically nature, animals, or mandalas (geometric figures). Along with the two coloring books I also ordered a 64 pack of crayons. I was never able to have this 64 pack as a kid, so I was ecstatic to be able to order and buy it for myself now, it felt like such an extravagance!
Thus began my coloring. It was such a relief to color when my brain felt scrambled, or overloaded, or just plain tired of dealing with his death, and life. Eventually I tried colored pencils I had stashed away from my kid’s high school careers. I also tried oil pastels and markers. I was experimenting, and it was fun. I had found a place in my life to experience some fun through creativity! In the next year I learned that coloring is actually a form of meditation; this made perfect sense to me since coloring provided me with such joy and comfort.
A few years later I was in a class for my job, and the instructor (now a good friend) and I got to chatting about coloring. Nancy suggested gel pens. I’d never heard of these, but was willing to give them a try. Now they are my go-to for coloring, I won’t use anything else. I’ve since bought many coloring books, and been given them as gifts. I even have what would be considered very much an ‘adult’ coloring book where the focus in on swear words — so FUN!
Do you color? What’s your favorite subject matter in a coloring book?
