Color me

Color fills the world but why do so many of us only see the gray?
We spend our lives searching for that perfect shade,
While every good thing we’ve ever passed is lost
Like those free paint chips you collect at the paint store.
We store these flimsy samples like memories, until we find a better one.
Oh sure you say if you don’t find another that appeals to you, you’ll use it
But we both know we’re not looking for one single color in this life.
No. I want them all.

I want to watch time change leaves green, yellow, red.
Because time moves too fast and this world needs a stoplight
To make people see all that they’re missing.
The blue tide will rise and fall but no one will see it
For the dark oil rings around their eyes
As they search the shores for silver dollars.
The sun continues to shine upon those ungrateful,
Whose shadowed lives leave them wandering the streets of their nightmares.

And maybe the grass isn’t greener on the other side
Because across the street is yet another shopping complex
That holds all the riches in the world, but I’m still left
Searching for the golden key to unlock doors that
I shouldn’t be afraid to leave open.
Stubbornness can drive the heart to become selfish
And I want to wave my white flag and surrender
To every fault made that has ever tarnished my soul.

To live in color is to be free, to share color is to love.
And with you in my life, every day has been the rainbow after the storm.
So please.
Take every memory we’ve ever made, every blessing we’ve ever shared
And make me whole.
Paint my flag.