Hi. What is your name? Pleased to meet you. My name is Bethie. But you can call me Mommy if you want to. I have a little bird that tells me that you are a Color Scout. You like to look for your colors every day. You know, honey, your colors make you real like the velveteen rabbit. Do you know about him? He was a stuffed bunny but he became real with the love of a boy.

Do you know how to make things real? I bet you do. I make things real by paying attention to them and loving them. But still, some things slip through my hands. And I am real. But a lot of people have told me that I am not. So, that hurt quite a lot when they were in charge of me. And some of them still are in charge of me today. But I am also still real.

Colors are pretty, like you and me. What are some of your colors? Some of mine are rainbow colored rocks, essential oil candles, all kinds of birds, sweet potatoes and beets, good music, bird’s nests, orchids, daffodils, succulents, little statues, pottery cups, beads and shells in my plants, turquoise bowls with spirals in them, old wood floors, people that really tell me about their hearts, iced tea in a pretty old glass, lying outside on a blanket, rocking in a rocking chair and Color Scouts like you.

When we scout our colors we begin to understand ourselves and everyone around us better. Because we start listening to God. And God to most people is some scary man in the sky that says we are bad. And God to us is a tree and Santa Claus. Santa Claus is nice. He does know when you are good and bad. And we color scouts always like to be good. It’s no problem for us, really. We are just made that way.

Homes are conscious because they are made out of trees. Trees are the original color scouts and they know who they like. We are loved by trees and houses. Birds and clouds respond to us every day. The light in the sky is shining just for us. We love our gardens with our radishes and our arugula rocket and our flowers because we are earth stewards. We love our inside time for play and our outside time for nature studies because we are sacred learners.

Let’s learn about our colors together as the world changes around us. There are lots and lots of people in the big wide world now trying to give us our colors. It might not be obvious where they are, yet. But they are here. Right here with us. So, we look for our colors in what we can. We make a little piece of beauty for ourselves. We eat a piece of chocolate with perfect attention to its flavor. We throw out something we no longer want.

We eat vegetarian food. We encourage others to do the same. We become color activists. This means we are not afraid to be beautiful. We are not afraid to tell the truth. We speak our hearts and our minds. And we rest when we need to.

Children and adults are co-activists. We are in this together. Sometimes an adult can’t see unless a child shows him. Sometimes a child can’t see unless an adult leads the way.

We have to be comfortable in our own skin to be a good color scout. We have to look around us and observe what is really going on. We have to ask for what we need. And if we can’t get it one place we often have to ask somewhere else.

I am a proud color scout. I love to seek out my colors every day. I have a lot of beautiful things that I love. And I don’t want to let them go from me, ever. But I am ready to have new things. And I have it all prepared. It is okay to want new things. And you are entitled to be happy. That is what you are born for. To know joy.

Listen, listen, listen. You are lovely, my littlest wren. Don’t be afraid to pick up your pen. Hold it in your hand the best way you know how. And then we come to you to make a sacred vow. Our vow to you is color, every single day. So Color Scout stand up and sing and light up the way.