Red

When I was a kid, red was my favorite color. That's no coincidence. Red is the color of anger, and I was an angry kid.

Red is also associated with fire. The thing about fire is that it can burn you to death or it can cook your food for you. It's all how you use it. It's all about controlling it, as opposed to it controlling you.

I still love red today. But because my relationship with anger is different, so is my relationship with the color.

My favorite use of red in nature is when it appears on leaves in the fall. Red is the rarest of leaf colors, and so it appears as the accent color amongst the beautiful barrage of yellows and oranges and greens that make up the foliage landscape.

As a metaphor for my life, when I have too much red in it, I'm getting burned. I'm letting the red control me. When red is an accent in my life, I'm using it as fuel. I'm using it to spark myself, and to accent the tapestry of my actions. Of my thoughts. Of my feelings. Of my dreams. 

And that's when I'm cooking...