This morning, Facebook notified me that my status update seven years ago announced that I was, “excited about the BRIGHT YELLOW paint that is now covering [my] bedroom walls!!” So, it seemed appropriate to repost “Sunshine and Love.

I believe that people require sunshine too.

More often than not, I have been blessed by the presence of kind and caring people. There was no lack of love in my life, but there was often a shortage of the sun’s rays. One day, while living in Virginia and looking out at the mountains along a gray skyline, I decided that I was going to paint my bedroom bright yellow.

As I stood in Benjamin Moore & Co., flipping thru the vast assortment of paint chips, the sales associate approached me and said, “When you select a color it is usually a good idea to go two shades darker than your original choice.” That made perfect sense to me.  So, I followed her advice and settled on “Banana Yellow,” which was really more of a sunflower yellow, in my opinion.

When I got to the counter she asked what room I would be painting. When I explained that it was for my bedroom, she stopped and assured me, “You do not want to paint your room this color.”

“Oh, yes, I do.”

“I don’t think that you understand; it will feel like you need sunglasses all the time.”

“Yep.” I smiled as I imagined just how fabulous that was going to feel.

“No, it’s going to seem like the lights are always on.”

“Yes.”

“No…”

And then I was forced to interrupt, “I want it to feel like I am standing in a field of sunflowers on the brightest, sunniest day that ever existed in all of time.”

She raised her eyebrows and laughed, “Oh, well, then I guess you have picked the right color.”

I absolutely had.

Shortly thereafter, I moved to the Caribbean.

Interestingly enough, in my lifetime, I have only painted my bedroom walls twice. In my childhood home, I painted a mural of a tropical underwater scene – it is still there. I suppose that we always, instinctively, know where we are truly meant to be.

photo location: St. John, US Virgin Islands (May 2012)