Do you 'color outside the lines'?
By mommyboo
@mommyboo (13174)
United States
January 3, 2009 9:12pm CST
I do. I am very much not a 'line' type of person 
. My daughter was just complaining in the car about how she didn't like a lot of her coloring book pictures and I said - but you get to color them any way YOU like! YOU get to pick the colors and where you color, you can ignore the lines completely if you want.
To make this deeper, I don't mean this discussion as a back and forth about coloring at all. When you get a page or a picture or a situation 'you don't like', do you remember that you get to color and pick how it's colored? You even get to choose how you see it, how you frame it, etc etc.
Do you remember to do this? Or do you spend most of your time griping about how you don't like the coloring pages of your life?
. My daughter was just complaining in the car about how she didn't like a lot of her coloring book pictures and I said - but you get to color them any way YOU like! YOU get to pick the colors and where you color, you can ignore the lines completely if you want.
To make this deeper, I don't mean this discussion as a back and forth about coloring at all. When you get a page or a picture or a situation 'you don't like', do you remember that you get to color and pick how it's colored? You even get to choose how you see it, how you frame it, etc etc.
Do you remember to do this? Or do you spend most of your time griping about how you don't like the coloring pages of your life?3 people like this
10 responses
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
24 Feb 09
That is a beautiful metaphor for life!
I like taking my pictures and painting them with colours that often aren't what you would expect. I like to take the road less travelled and work on different solutions to problems, so blue can quickly turn to purple if I decide that blue was the wrong colour to use and then went over it with some red.
There is no point complaining about life. It is happening, and it is upto each and every person to make the most of the life they have and the opportunities that come their way.
1 person likes this
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
27 Feb 09
If I was able to make your day seem a bit better, then I achieved something of the day, unlike in the real world- washing pile still growing! lol.
@pheonixstar1982 (2307)
• United States
24 Feb 09
I color in side the lines...but i choose my colors...from blue clouds and purple skies..even purple elephants...i miss my purple elephant. As for my life i live by my rules, as odd as they are. I dont want to live in the box...i wont fit. I dont want to be like everyone else..i like being me.
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
25 Feb 09
I think the best thing anybody can do is be themselves. As hokey as it sounds (who didn't have parents who gave this sage advice over and over between ages 9 and 20? LOL), it really means something. You can even tell when someone is faking it for a group or a crowd, people like that are NOT the ones I want to get to know better, even if they SEEM like it on the surface. Someone who is not genuine makes me edgy.
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
5 Jan 09
I was having a chat with an Art teacher. He is totally against using colouring pictures books with young children. He thinks that these kinds of books do resrict the creativity of our children. He prefers to give children a blank piece of paper and colouring pencils and let them be creative without being restricted.
(c) ronaldinu 2009 - the more people I meet-the more I love my dog
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (168721)
• Boise, Idaho
4 Jan 09
With 'life' as the deriviter here I guess I would have to agree. I had an acquaintance who when we colored only onlined the pictures. Never colored inside. I always thought that alittle odd. We all make our decisions don't we? Odd how we percieve things sometimes. Odd how others do as well.
@carmelsuarez (329)
• Philippines
4 Jan 09
I am the worst ever to do such job even if there the huge and bright line. I dont know I gave up coloring... its not just maybe my line of thing. It is the hardest job for me ever. Maybe if there were rules that people who cant color perfectly inside lines will die... I'm probably in heaven now... cheering up those who can. hahahaha.
Ohhhh. I remember I was trying to make this picture look good by trying to put a boarder using the color line.... but it was a disaster. I get lower than you could think grades in art. And I declare to myself the worst artist of all. And I really... really appreaciate those who can color and make things artistic. I regard them highly.
1 person likes this
@stardustw83 (435)
• United States
5 Jan 09
you know i always try to color inside the lines. (i wonder what this says about my personality) but i never have tried to think about life in the same way as do i do things inside the lines and if i get a picture i don't like complain about it or take it for what its worth and turn it into something beautifull. You have put a completely new way of thinking into my brain. I appreciate a good topic now and then even when at first it seems for fun and then gets more philisophical. lol
Thanks!!!
1 person likes this
@underdogtoo (9579)
• Philippines
4 Jan 09
I don't much care for rules but I don't break them just because I can't do them correctly. I try to work within the framework of my life and try to master what needs to be mastered. Pablo Picasso draws some pretty fine classical drawings which he mastered before he created his own disjointed paintings. Cheers!!
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
8 Jan 09
It's not usually because I can't, it's because I don't want to. There is a difference lol. Obviously sometimes to get where you're trying to go you HAVE to do things exactly as others expect you to, but I try to limit those situations in my life when I can.
@Little_Stormy (6883)
• United States
4 Jan 09
I LOVEEE coloring!!!! I DO stay within the lines *have horror stories of kindergarten to thank for that!*
As for the BIG life picture.. I use such vibrant and fun colors that I don't even notice the lines!
1 person likes this
@Opal26 (17679)
• United States
4 Jan 09
Hey mommyboo! How deep! Maybe too deep for me at this point!
I am not sure I can wrap my brain around this one! lol I am
not in a really great frame of mind right now and haven't
been since this wonderful year has started off already on
the wrong foot! Do I color out of the lines of life! Yup!
But, not in a coloring book! In life yes I certainly do! I
can't follow orders or do what I'm told, never could! I make
my own choices, run my own game, do my own thing and have a
hell of a time conforming to anything! K! Does that bout
answer yer question? I am in a beotchy mood, but that really
is how I do my life! If people don't like it or me they can
just keep it movin'! I can be the nicest of nice, but if I
am pushed or crossed~you'd better run! I pick the song. I
pick the singer! That's the way it has to be! I took crap
most of my life and refuse to do it anymore!
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
8 Jan 09
I don't take crap either. I pretty much do what I want - although sometimes what I want DOES conform because it helps me get where I'm going or serves a purpose. I find that most of the time the motivations behind what I do are completely different than other peoples', even if the actions are the same. I share this with people whenever I get accused of anything like 'following the crowd' because I don't want anybody to think I ever do that.
I didn't have the best end to my year and I am still getting things straightened out even now. I'm not one to follow orders either, they need to be more like suggestions and if you can convince me they are a good idea, I am all about it. If not... go away, I don't even want to talk to you LOL! I'm super nice too, unless you cross me.
