Noticing (Yellow)
Quick programming note! Our next Pop Culture Pastors Hour podcast is TODAY! 12:30pm ET with Amber Groomes,Ph.D. (she/her). We’ll be talking the AppleTV comedy/drama, Shrinking. Dr. Groomes is a therapist/counselor and we’ll be having a great time talking though the three seasons of this show’s stories of therapists dealing with health, family, grief, and so much more!
Ok…onto yellow!
The first thing I listen to in the car each weekday is a podcast called The Slowdown. It is a weekday podcast with a poem and a short reflection. As with any artistic experience, some of the poems connect and some do not but I continue to listen each day. Last Friday, the daily poem was You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford. You can listen to the full episode here (or any of the usual podcast sites) as I don’t think I can post the full poem here. But I can post an excerpt of this beautiful poem about trying to be fully present...
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life –1
The whole focus that day was on the gift of being present. In the reflection before the poem was read, the host Maggie Smith shared this:
Being present costs us nothing. It requires no special equipment. No special location. We can all do better at noticing, and at keeping ourselves open to what we’re experiencing right now.
Today’s poem is a good reminder that the present is just that — a gift.2
Being present at the heart of this practice of noticing. It is simply being present in the moment, aware of what I am seeking (in the case of this week, the color yellow/gold), and simply receiving what the present moment brings.
I was fascinated by the variance in the experience of yellow that I read in Wikipedia’s entry on the color - from energy and optimism to fear and cowardice. Different cultures, of course, have vastly different experiences and interpretations of the color as well. Check out the article for more. In my Christian faith tradition, yellow doesn’t appear directly very often in the Bible, but gold appears ALL over the place. The ark of the covenant, the tabernacle, the temple, visions of God, and the list goes on. So in the Bible it is often associated with something majestic, powerful, holy, and priceless.
This week, with yellow, I found the color in some much different places than my usuals as you’ll see below. Initially this week, however, yellow was more about music than about images. Yellow by Coldplay has been on my mental (and literal) playlist all week. It also jogged a great memory for me as the first time I heard the song was one of the early gatherings for my Doctor of Ministry group over 20 years ago. Going to this song led me to other “yellow” (and gold) songs, including a few I hadn’t heard of before. I put together a Yellow playlist on both Apple and Spotify if you’re interested in listening. The playlist includes Coldplay’s song of course, but also one my sister would be furious if I didn’t include, along with the Beatles, a Sting song covered by Eva Cassidy, some Fleetwood Mac, K Pop Demon Hunters, Elton John, and a gorgeous song entitled Yellow Moon by a Japanese folk artist named Akeboshi. The translation of the lyrics to the song’s Japanese lyrics are here if you want to take a listen. Here are the full playlists (19 songs):
Yellow/Gold Songs
When it comes to the photographs, there was one moment that was impossible to photograph. Monday morning as I was getting ready to head out, there was an incredible quality to the morning light. The golden hue of the just-risen sun was absolutely stunning. But as I walked out to soak it in, I knew that there was no way that any photograph could even come close to reflecting the reality of the experience. The color of that morning was the domain of a poet. I am just grateful that I was able to receive that moment with the photograph of my heart and my mind and that it is still there…
Onto the photographs of yellow for the week:
Where did you see yellow this week?
What does the color yellow stir for you?
Which of the yellow songs is your favorite?
Did I miss any yellow songs?
I did want to share one other really unique photo that has a tiny bit of yellow. My favorite bird (and potentially my spirit animal), the Great Blue Heron perched right on the point by the photograph that was the framing for my book Ordinary Benchmarks. This was the only photograph from that moment but I am so grateful that I was able to see it. And the yellow? Just at the tip of the heron’s beak.
The color for the week ahead… white!
And Scout of course. These two photos are not recent but came up as I was looking for some older photos for one of my daughters. These are Scout when she was only about 3 months old...look at those big ears!
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed
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