26.1.15

DAY 563

in {and out} Week 3: White

Many persons want to see life in black and white or even only in black or white. Obviously, is much more convenient trying to understand the world from this point of view because by reducing categories having a clear explanation for every circumstance, event or behavior is much simpler. Unfortunately the thing is not that easy and our experiences not always respond to well defined patterns or motivations.

I used to wish to be that kind of person. I used to like to have answers and put my experiences inside a few little boxes which were correctly labeled. I didn´t want the chaos or the uncertainty, the variety of real life. I didn´t want my days to be unpredictable, diverse, so I was always struggling to keep order using strange –reductive- methods to control what indeed was uncontrollable.

Now I am learning to allow life to happen. I am learning to embrace the grey and all the colors between the black and the white. I have come to understand that trying to reduce life to something easy to drive creates biases that ruin the allure of raw reality: when we are always denying, repressing, categorizing and acting accordingly, we forget to enjoy what is wild and extravagant and absurd and unreasonable, all that is unexpected or accidental, the miracles and all the things that we think shouldn´t be here but exist anyway.

This is helping me also to stop altering my own story, past or attitudes… in the end, when one has only a small number of compartments for storing persons, ideas or memories,   the only thing that can be done with our changeable and inconstant life is to create a new version of it more homogeneous, less complex.

This has not driven me to a life of confusion and disorder (as I previously thought). Paradoxically, as soon I let go my old and strict mindset, my calm has increased. I have learned that all colors and nuances exist regardless of my opinion about them, that all are important and have a reason for existing in a given moment.

In short, life is not monochromatic, but today we honor white.



This entry is part of a project I am developing with my friend Montse Gallardo. We´ll share a photo every week during 2015. Her photos will be always taken outside and my photos will be indoor shots only. We have created a Facebook page: In and Out. 52 weeks where you can see all the photos of the project.  

7 comments:

aspiritofsimplicity said...

I have learned to love white and the more calm colors. I used to love all the bright colors but I find myself drawn to more muted color now.

Maery Rose said...

This is all so true and so perfectly expressed. To give up the struggle and fighting against "life," surprising (at least at first) comes peace. Great post!

Barb said...

My favorite color to decorate and fill my home with is white because of its calm energy and the ability to add any splash of color. Your lovely photo drew me in but the prose resonates with wisdom too.

Donna@LivingFromHappiness said...

Beautiful white and isn't it interesting that even though we may only want black and white there are so many varieties of these 2 colors....never simple never monochromatic....love that you are finding the colors and grays!

CatieAn said...

what a great post. I find myself really drawn to the blogs that only post white and grays but know within twn minutes I wouldn't want to stay there unless I could splash some bright color some where in the middle of all of it......it is interesting how we are drawn to certain aspects or colors in our worlds. Great introspection. Thank you for sharing

Unknown said...

'allow life to happen' sounds good. I love to create in black and white, there so many shades between those two colours and I always loved monochrome, for sharpness, simplicity and that big gap or spectrum of posibilities between two colours, only two colours. maybe that is why life simply cannot be black and white because of that space between. Great post. Enjoy white and much love to you!

Unknown said...

Lovely, calm photo.

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