STAYING IN THE LINES

 I was visiting with my sister Donna a few months ago when she asked if I wanted to see a program she'd taped.

“Sure.” I said as I made myself comfortable on her couch.

While she was busy selecting the program she handed me a coloring book and a packet of colored pencils.

“I like to color while I watch.” she said. She settled in her comfy chair with her own coloring book resting in her lap. There was a packet of freshly sharpened colored pencils on the arm of the chair. “It's very relaxing.” she insisted.

I wasn't convinced. “I'm not big on coloring.” I said as I opened the book and saw page after page of line designs of flowers. “They're pretty.” I admitted. “But I didn't even like to color when I was a kid.”

“Just try it.” She said as the show came on and she selected her first color and began working on her picture.

I shrugged my shoulders, found a page I liked and began coloring.

I knew a lot of adults loved to color. I just felt like I wasn't going to be one of them. But, I was willing to give it a try. I'd heard about the studies from psychologists who claimed that coloring wis suppose to be the alternative to meditation. It is suppose to unlock your creative potential and relieve tension and anxiety. While I concentrated on not going out of the lines, I wasn't feeling like my anxiety level was lowering. In fact I was feeling annoyed as I slipped out of the lines and grabbed another color to try and fix my first mistake.

Now, I'd also heard coloring was also suppose to unlock memories of your childhood. Well, that one I was in complete agreement with!

I quickly had flashbacks of when I was a kid and had gotten my first paint on velvet kit. I was so excited! I'd set myself up in the kitchen, where I thought the best light was. Then I took out the velvet picture of the puppy and began my creative journey. It didn't take me long to find out that my painting was turning into a disaster! I couldn't seem to stay in the lines so as the picture progressed it slowly transformed from a picture of a cute puppy into more of a Rorschach ink blot test!

So now as I once again was trying to unlock my creative side I found myself wandering outside the lines. “Oh Come On!” I cried as I grabbed another colored pencil and tried to fix another mistake.

“You can't make a mistake in coloring!” Donna tried to remind me.

Easy for her to say, as I looked at her picture where all the colors were blending beautifully together and her shading was perfection!

“Mine looks like a five year old did it.” I complained, colored pencil in hand as I tried desperately to keep my tongue from sticking out of the corner of my mouth as I was fixing yet another mistake. I looked at my half finished picture, knowing it was never going to be refrigerator hanging worthy and decided to give up.

By now I realized I'd missed most of the show. “Can you rewind this?” I asked as I put my coloring book next to me. “I'll finish my picture later.” I said.

“Sure.” she said. I was pretty sure she knew I was lying, I was never going to finish the picture. But she never said a word as she picked up the remote and hit the rewind button.