Brown is my favorite color, although you'd be hard pressed to determine that if you stepped foot into my vibrantly colored Cozy Christmas Cottage, or Suite 132. Honestly, the only reason I know this about myself is from much thought. It has been a question commonly asked of me throughout my now 50 years. I believe I was 15 when I opened my clothes closet and had the sudden realization that the display before me was dominated by the color brown! Since then, I have revisited the favorite color question many times, and I always "land" with both feet, on brown.
Why brown? I think, perhaps, because brown is very welcoming and steadfast, and perhaps because it is the more cheerful, hopeful dark color, over black, which I also love. Teddy bears are brown. Boots, pinecones, tree trunks and branches, coffee, which I have only recently enjoyed drinking, but have always loved smelling, ahhhh!....chocolate, cinnamon, nutmeg, falling leaves, and leather! So many comforting and heartwarming things are brown! Brown paper packages, tied up with string! These are a few of my favorite things!
But...I love brown the most in a world rich with color. I love brown with red, as I dot my Christmas Coffee with cranberries I host in my freezer year round. I love brown with green, because I absolutely love trees, which boast a lot of brown and green. Six of my nieces and nephews have tree names (Cedar, Aspen/Cranberry, Alder, Juniper Olive, Charley Oak Linden, and Sarah Evelyn--Charley and Evelyn both being Family Tree names!) I love brown with orange, and I love the happy compliment orange brings by adding a slice of a Cutie-Clementine-Mandarin to my brown Christmas Coffee. I love brown with blue, when earth meets water, by the sea, ocean, lake, river, brook!
Moose are brown, and sea otters are brown, two of my favorite animals, and my new puppy, Alpine Snow, a Bernese Mountain Dog, has brown and white markings on her beautiful coat of black, and she is so entirely cute!
Brown is beautiful. But there is one time I don't like brown. And that's when it's the color of water that people created in the image of GOD are drinking.
Brown water robs babies of birthdays. Brown water keeps children out of school. Brown water demands many hours of walking, every day, from its retrievers. And then it breaks down their lives. Sometimes little by little. Sometimes suddenly. 3.4 million people die every year because they drink brown water.
Pine cones are brown. Teddy bears are brown. Brown is a beautiful, comforting color. But not for water.
