• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About John Hembree
  • Blog

John Hembree

An Everyday Expression of Hope and Its Potential

An Everyday Expression of Hope 

Coloring Outside The Lines

May 9, 2019 by John Hembree Leave a Comment

Elephant

When my daughters were young, I would invite them to a coloring party.

We would pull out the box of crayons, grab some coloring books and have fun.

Inevitably they would color outside of the parameters, or the lines, of a drawing.

They would immediately say, “I’m sorry Daddy.  I messed this one up.”

I would answer, “Are you kidding me?  That is exactly how it is supposed to look.  Because you created it.”

I would then ask them about their newly created masterpiece.

Why this color?

What did you have in mind when you drew those big funny ears on the head of the turtle?

It is not a mistake to color outside the lines.

It is a mistake to stay so within the boundaries set by others that you lose all sense of being unique.

Of who you are.

Try this sometime.

I have done this before and it turned into a creative explosion.

If you are at a table filled with adults at a restaurant and they each have crayons and those table cloths where the kids are supposed to draw on them and be entertained.

Forget the kids.

Pass out the crayons and see what happens.

All the barriers come down.

The creativity goes up.

It is that which is bottled up inside of us that screams, “Color outside the lines.”

Listen to the scream.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: General, Slideshow, Words

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe

Get Email Updates

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd )

Recent Posts

Simple And Reassuring Heroes

Don’t Eat The Cheese

Direction Question

The Witch of Endor

My Life

Hidden But Known…

Better Days

Recent Comments

  • Emily on 61
  • Mere on An Incomplete Circle- An Unfinished Life
  • Emily on Reaching Forward…Each New Day
  • Emily on Not A Resolution..More Of A Resolve
  • Dan Davis on I Am Inescapable

Footer

  • Privacy Policy

© Copyright 2008-2021 · All Rights Reserved · Website by TecAdvocates