Color Outside The Lines
I picked up a Hallmark card about nine or ten years ago. The kind of card that spoke to me in such a powerful way that I bought it for myself in the hopes it would spur me to change, to take some much needed action. It said on the front, “You have to color outside the lines every once in a while if you want your life to be a masterpiece.”
It caught me red-crayon handed. For way too long, I’d been trying to color inside the lines of my life without success. Try as I might, I could not color or stay inside the lines of rigid acceptability. I could not conform. It pained me to do so.
This card gave me the permission I’d been unable to give myself: It’s o.k. to do things your own way. It’s o.k. to be different. It’s o.k. to follow your own path.
As soon as I stopped trying to color inside the lines, my life situation improved dramatically. I stopped trying to fit into the world. Instead I began fitting the world into me. It made all the difference.
My only suggestion for the card? “You have to color outside the lines every once in a while often if you want your life to be a masterpiece.”
Do you know what I’m saying here? Have you ever felt hemmed in by societal lines?
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