Going Green

I always underline in books with a grey lead pencil. I have always hated the idea of using a highlighter because it's so permanent. If I make a mistake I can't change it, and what if I decide one day that the things I have underlined were wrong, or were silly for me to have underlined? I like to know that I can erase any markings I have made if I decide I shouldn't have made them in the first place.

Tonight I have branched out - I've gone green. Not a green highlighter, but a green pencil. Not quite as permanent as a texta, but still not as easily gotten rid of and erased at a later date like grey lead.

I picked a book off my shelves that had been sitting there for a few months untouched, and as I read the title I decided that grey wasn't going to cut it for my highlighting. With a title like "If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit" grey was not an option. I had to bust out of my highlighting rut.

It was a toss up between bright pink or bright green. Green won because it already had a sharp end on it.

As crazy as it sounds, I feel extremely liberated by my green pencil.

This green pencil is not only highlighting sentences and passages in my book, but it has highlighted an issue for me in my life.

I like to stay safe, where I am comfortable in my skills and am rarely challenged. I hate the thought that I might be wrong, or say something silly. I like to write my life with a grey lead, so that I can try to erase anything I get wrong. I don't very often get out of my comfort zone and write in green. Green isn't safe. Green is different and a little bit crazy. It's more obvious than grey. It stands out a little more.

I can't help but think I might be missing out on some pretty good things by hiding behind my grey. It might be good to go green once in a while, to take a chance, do something different. A leap of faith. (I actually nearly typed "leaf of faith" which would have been highly appropriate given the colour most leaves are!)

While safe is, well, safe, Mixing it up is good too. Meet new people, talk to someone I don't normally talk to, eat at a different restaurant, go to one of the women's events at church (I never do. Too many women in one place all at the same time freaks me out) . Just try something different, go a little green.