01
Reflections
Short pieces of my own writing — moments noticed, questions sat with, and perspectives that have shifted over time.
Color by Numbers
October 14, 2026
I sat the other day and watched the contents of my mind pass by, as they so often do.
I knew there was something more behind, beneath or beyond the content, so I simply acknowledged it as it arrived.
I glanced at each piece, winked at the familiar repeats, smiled at my joy and nodded at the inbox flowing in front of me.
Then an image came.
Perhaps mindfulness is a little like a child’s coloring book. Color by numbers.
We see a page, a form, something easily recognizable, and immediately know what color it should be.
A sun asks for yellow. A tree, a combination of brown and green. An ocean, shades of blue.
And so it is with our experiences.
An argument might become red. Pleasure, purple. Stress, a few hurried strokes of orange mixed with others.
We assign colors almost without noticing. And with those colors come feelings, emotions and physical reactions. Our bodies tighten, our breathing shortens, and sometimes we become exhausted by the very experiences we’re coloring.
But what if we didn’t have to color every page?
What if mindfulness allowed us simply to see the content, recognize its familiar shape and the color we might ordinarily give it, and leave it be?
We could glance at another page. And another.
We might begin to recognize that we can observe all this content without rushing to color it, without needing to get up and act upon it, without automatically activating the tension that so often accompanies our reactions.
Some pages may need coloring later. Others may never need it at all.
And perhaps, as we learn to let them be, the content begins to dissipate.
Mindfulness offers us this gift: the possibility of seeing without immediately reacting, of allowing experience to arise without needing to become consumed by it.
Awareness awaits and has no number in it and no action required.