Yellow!

     Many, many moons ago (about 1994/95!) I went to a church ladies’ meeting in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. I’m not a fan of ladies meetings, so the ones I do go to tend to be memorable for some reason or other!  At this one they had someone from the Colour Me Beautiful camp and we heard all about the Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn colours and according to our skin tone, which colour category we fall into, to help us choose the right colours to wear, both in clothes and make-up, to look and feel our best.  I think they’ve changed their own image a bit since then and the Winter, Summer, Spring & Autumn categories seem to have changed to soft, warm, light, deep, etc.

     After that meeting I decided that I was perhaps a Winter person; I could wear pure white and pure black and the pinky palette, but the yellow palette didn’t suit me an so I stuck to that over the years. I don't remember ever wearing anything bright yellow! However as we get older, we may change!

     Today I went to another church ladies’ meeting – the 2013 Women’s World Day of Prayer – and I was asked to take part.  My part was highlighted in yellow in the programme as “Woman 6 – wearing a lemon yellow scarf.” The scarves were provided by the local organisers and my scarf was a bright yellow! But a beautiful bright Yellow!

     The Women’s World Day of Prayer is put together by a different country each year, and this year was France’s turn. The French organisers asked that six women wear different coloured scarves, symbolically representing the diversity of backgrounds of those taking part in the service.  The other colours were garnet red, vermillion red, orange, apricot, and yellow-ochre. Most of the scarves our ladies wore were a very muted red and orange palette. And then there was yellow!!  

     At tea after the meeting everyone commented on the beautiful yellow and I most certainly had warmed to ‘my’ scarf and was dreading having to give it back, even though it was yellow, and bright yellow at that!  Fortunately we were given the opportunity of paying a very nominal amount to keep it and I walked home feeling very sunshiney, on a cold winter’s day!  The ladies suggested it represented the sunflowers which had formed part of the French display!

     That Yellow Scarf made me smile. It made me feel light and happy! It joins my grey silvery scarf, my deep pinky-red patterned scarf, my white woollen scarf, my pink woolly scarf and my black and grey scarf. It probably feels quite conspicuous! But I like my Yellow Scarf! Who knows what colour my next clothes purchase will be!!

 (Err, no, I don't consciously collect scarves, but it is nice to have a choice!)