Current Inspiration

My philosophy of Pink

I first recognized “Pink” while I was living in Mexico with my husband and son.  My husband was building a glass factory and so we were going to be living there for about 14 months.
We had been there for at least 6 months at this point.  My dear husband had been working many, many long hours on site, and my girlfriends had all left for their summer vacations, so I was feeling pretty darned lonely, frustrated, angry and defensive which is not the way I wanted to be spending my life, especially trying to raise a young, impressionable child.  I was frustrated because I felt like I “should” being doing something else, what that was I didn’t know.  I was angry because I was frustrated and I was defensive because I felt guilty for not being content with what I had, which was a FREAKING AWESOME LIFE!   The front part of my brain knew that I “should be happy” but there was a nagging discontent that was making me short-tempered, irritable and snappy.  I wasn’t happy and my attitude was poisoning my life. I knew something had to change, I just didn’t know what.

I was taking my walk, when I noticed the sky.  There were just enough clouds on the horizon to create one of those picture-perfect sunsets with yellow rays of sunlight shining through hot pink clouds against an apricot sky.  Stunning, really stunning.

It was then that I felt a feeling of lightness. Like a marionette, I could feel the sunset pulling all the tension and pain off of my shoulders.

I was wearing an MP3 player and the song playing at that very moment was Pink by Aerosmith.

I was speechless, floating along the street, listening to Steven Tyler sing…

“And I think everything is going to be all right, no matter what we do tonight” and I got it.  I totally understood just what exactly it was that I was supposed to learn.

I could hold onto my loneliness, anger, frustration and defensiveness and continue to feel horrible.

Or I could let it go, even for just a few moments and feel better.  The choice was completely up to me!  Amazing! I had to be strong enough to surrender and let it all go.  I had to have enough faith in myself and the Universe to figure out what  it was I really needed, as well as, the patience and determination to go out and get it. Essentially, I had to let my life become something different, something better.

I started by taking control of my attitude.  Doing this allowed me to develop appreciation for my life.  It hasn’t happened all at once, but it HAS happened.  Just like muscles are strengthened by regular use, I  had to practice living joyfully day to day.  I had to go out and find the Pink things.  As a matter of fact, I started creating art (making Pink things ) to represent my gratitude for the Pink things in my life. The piece at the top of this essay was just the first of many projects I’ve made to say THANK YOU to the Universe. I built up my happiness muscles and I USE them!

God wants me to be happy.  She’ll throw out clues to remind me.  It’s my job to look for them.

Pink is my reminder of why life is worth living.  It’s a naturally occurring phenomenon produced by the Universe.  Like a birthday present, it’s wrapped up in the mundane events of daily life just waiting to be opened.
Like the soft, pink of baby toes,
and the light-hearted earnestness of “Octopuses Garden” by the Beatles,
my son’s laughter,
and my husband’s smile,
the sexiness of Steven Tyler singing “Pink”,
and the hot, pink flowers on a bougainvillea vine,
the resilient attitude of SpongeBob SquarePants,
and the warm, buzzing feeling in my muscles after an intense work-out,
Pink reminds me that my happiness is completely up to me and I can unwrap it whenever I want to.

That day transformed my life.  I love my life and feel so very blessed.  I admit, there are days that are difficult, some of which are downright painful.  Sometimes I look around and don’t see anything Pink.

I finally realized what it is I am supposed to be doing.  I have to be the Pink thing, the reminder of why life is beautiful and worth living.

“Wait!”  you say.  “How can you be so unrealistic?  Real life is hard, difficult and filled with dissappointment.  Aren’t you sticking your head in the sand with all of this Pink crap?  Aren’t your afraid of being made a fool of?”

Thanks for asking and I’m really glad you’re here.  Without you, I would just be talking to myself and that would be really boring.

Let me be more specific about what I think Pink means.

Pink is my way to describe an overall-workable scheme to create a life worth looking forward to, as well as looking back upon.  Pink is about momentum, not about perfection.

Let me offer three ideas that really help develop the philosophy of Pink;

desire, equanimity and resilience.

Desire is a very powerful force.  Desire doesn’t sit in the corner waiting to be fulfilled.  Desire pushes and prods relentlessly.  Like a hungry cat rubbing around your legs, desire gets noticed, dammit!

Equanimity is the relationship in your life between what is happening to you and what you are doing about it.  For example, if you spend every day of the week making chocolate chip cookies, you may become a very good baker, but you will not become a Kung Fu Master.  Basically, you become what you do everyday.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back after hardship. You practice resilience by getting back up again, and again……and again……….

“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” ~ Mary Pickford

Pink is the combination of all three of these. Pink is not afraid of what everyone else thinks. Pink wants to be noticed and appreciated.  Pink has something better to offer than fear.  Pink promises fulfillment.  Pink is beautiful, funny, inspiring, strong, joyful, soothing and confident.  Pink ROCKS!!

I hope that you will go out and look for the Pink things in your life.  Even if your Pink things are Purple, Turquoise, or Neon Green, they long for your attention and want to inspire you.

The best part is that once you find them, everyone benefits!

John Lennon and the Beatles said it best when they sang “And in the end.  The love you take, is equal to the love you make.”

May peace be with you and keep you safe and happy.

Pam Belding

p.s. Paula Pryke has a new book called”Simply Pink” and it is GORGEOUS!