Six Days of Holiday Colors

Day #6 – Color My Prayer

The deepest and most fulfilling level of coloring this season for me has been prayer coloring. I often say I’m not religious but what I mean is I don’t attend a church regularly. I try to follow what His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama said, “My religion is kindness.” I usually go to church on Christmas Eve. Shallow tho’ it may seem, the choice of church is sometimes based on the choir, will there be candles and can we sing along?

Yes, I’m moved by the story of the Christ child. It raises all kinds of question. As we sing “Mary Did You Know?” I think, What did Mary really think of this baby? Her young boy? This precocious teenager, and finally, the young adult who really could turn the other cheek with compassion? My heart is stirred as I think of compassion–and my intentions for compassion that often get discarded. Sometimes deliberately. Often they disappear in the busyness of daily events.

I usually don’t sit or kneel to pray. But ‘coincidently’ a book came my way the last year of my brother-in-law’s life. I’ve used it for years since. Praying in Color.

Think of someone you care about, are worried about, have difficulty with. In short someone who’s with you mentally a lot, but perhaps not with you physically. Write the person’s name in a circle (word splash revisited). Using different color markers (of course I have the thinline ones), write all your words of intention for that person around their name. Doodle, design, add whatever marks, shapes, or pictures seem appropriate around the words and person’s name. Intentions yield calmness, and compassion (for others and for myself) comes easier when I sit and pray in color. Choose colors that you think fit that person. A prayer of color.

May I color a prayer for you?