6 December 2021 (purple sheen)

the purple sheen

of blackberry canes

winter light

May 25: Purple

For today's post I'm primarily going to let these photos of what's blooming in my yard right now speak for themselves. Clearly I have a penchant for violet, though soon all these blossoms will be joined by frilly white peonies and the reds, oranges, and pinks of daylilies. With temperatures continuing in the 80s, these cool, soothing shades of purpley-blue against the rich green background of the lawn seem just right, just what the eye needs.

I've identified most closely with the color purple for as long as I can remember--I've always felt lucky that my birthstone is amethyst, a purple form of quartz, and that the flower associated with my birth month is the violet. So perhaps unconsciously I've loaded up my flower beds with this color. If you study chakras (the body's energy spots) and their associated colors, the violet-indigo-blue end of the spectrum covers the crown, third eye, and throat--head and neck, basically--and represent good things like oneness with the divine, peace, balance, intuition, and verbal expression. Without getting too New Age-y, I like to think that we are drawn to particular colors at certain times because we need something from them. Today I feel a calming connection to the colors of my flowers, as well as the desire to verbally express that uplifting connection with a haiku.

Drawn to these purple
flowers, my hot head is soothed,
cool balance returned.