If you ever wished you had a spiritual guide who could walk you through the choices you need to make on your journey through life, you will be fascinated by this invitation from "Color" — depicted as a cheerful being with a cloak and feathers of rainbow design — to write and illustrate your own evolving story. Color tells you right off the bat that s/he's embarrassed, because s/he lost your dream and vision and needs your help to get it back.
Color provides check-ins, emotional support, and "inspirational cheerleading" as you travel through these pages in quest of your vision. Along the way, you answer questions like "What does it feel like to be fully immersed in what you love?" and you color in designs that blend alchemical, indigenous, and natural symbolism. You're also supported along the way by 12 "Keepers," archetypal allies who want what's best for you and ask you some challenging questions ("Within-quiries") to help you be honest with yourself.
The Keeper named "Honor," for example, appears as a badger dressed in a cloak patterned with symbols. He carries a staff topped with a yin-yang sign. Behind his head, what appears at first to be a halo reveals itself to be a labyrinth.
All of this is available for you to color, before or after you read about how Honor the Badger guards the color purple and never fears "foraging and forging his path." You learn his virtue (trusting intuition), his affirmation ("I am a light in the world"), his keepsake (lantern), and more. You also read and absorb pithy and relevant quotes like Buckminster Fuller's "You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn't."
We are tempted to go on and on about every single aspect of the journey that this book covers, but we'll let a few of the page-spread titles suffice as lures for you:
- Living in Decision
- Put the Compass in Compassion
- In Good Conch Sense
- Up, Upend a Way
- Stay or Weave
- Connect the Don'ts
- Womb to Grow
You can hear the marvelous puns, which make The Keepers of Color as lyrical as it is colorful.
Thankfully, we do not see any age suggestions accompanying Jon Marr's fascinating and insightful book. We ourselves can't wait to get started, and even little children would enjoy coloring along with older children or adults.
