Pink flower in dirt

A dark world to escape from

Free reign, scared within

My laptop is pink. My cell phone cover is pink.  My calculator is pink. It is safe to say I like pink. However, growing up, I hated pink. Although, I didn’t hate my pink Easter bonnet.  I always had a soft spot for my Easter bonnet. It was the one nice outfit I had growing up.  luckily, I stayed thin enough for many years and could reuse that outfit and then I kept that bonnet for a while. It represented a moment of happiness and quiet joy. It calmed the storms around me. It was as if the bonnet had magical powers keeping the mean girls away and the tough streets at bay.  I would put that bonnet on and I was a sophisticated, pretty little girl. The scrappy nerdy girl would hide away for a few.  I don’t know what happened to that bonnet but I sure wish I had one no as an adult. If I had given birth to a girl, you can be sure she would have a bonnet, many bonnets at that. Besides that magical bonnet, I hated pink. It reminded me of the expectations my family had of me that I did not hold for myself. I wanted to be a strong woman, with a free spirt and steady mind. That was not exactly what most of my family expected of me. For me, pink wasn’t for a strong-minded woman.

Now, pink is powerful and I wear it with pride. I am not afraid to be seen in pink or carrying a pink flower. What I love about finding pink flowers out on the road in northern California or the Big Island of Hawaii is that the pink flowers are often found embedded in a group of non-pink flowers. In Hawaii, I found small little pink flowers amongst the lava rocks. I couldn’t help but think of myself growing up.  What a perfect image to stay with me. Often a diamond in the rough is used to describe people like me growing up. But perhaps the better description is a pink flower amongst the hardened lava flow field.