Getting It Right

Today I will be re-painting Amy's kitchen. The CAMELBACK ended up looking almost exactly the same shade as the WHOLE WHEAT of the adjoining dining area and great room. So everyone agreed we needed to go darker: BAGUETTE. The contrast will be noticeable and therefore "right."

This reminds me of an article in the current issue of AARP The Magazine. Susan Roberts writes in her article, "The Age of Reason," that at midlife "we face an important crossroad. We can continue along pathways established for us by others, or we can really grow up, breaking free of the past, and become true individuals."

She quotes from James Hollis, "The first half of life is essentially a mistake," and from Jean Shinoda Bolen (both Jungian analysts), "From the time we were sent off to nursery school to the time we wanted to get into the right college or profession or be accepted by our partners, we had to cut off that which didn't fit the picture of success."

So Roberts talks about becoming more authentically alive in the second half of life by moving beyond nature and society, apart from our history, to "the process of becoming, through the experience of life's long arc, the person one was always meant to be." It's the aging process, for which there's no bluprint: this is when children depart, a spouse divorces us or dies, a career ends. It's when you realize you've done everything expected of you. Now what?

Let's just say that BAGUETTE is the color the kitchen was meant to be. (It definitely makes more sense with Whole Wheat than Camelback, don't you think!)

[Yesterday was Day 6 of painting: 6 hours of WHOLE WHEAT in the foyer and cutting-in at the ceiling for the great room and dining room. And Mark came to hang the ceiling fan in Amy's bedroom!]