Happy Friday, House of Shine! Cheryl here.

I loved learning the art of symbolism in Coach Wagner's ninth grade English class when we read The Great Gatsby. That moment of learning has stayed with me all these years. Since Yellow is our theme this month I decided to revisit symbolism and what yellow symbolizes. 

Yellow has been associated with being cowardly and also as caution. You have the yellow caution light and the caution flag in car racing. When yellow is combined with black it is signaling you as a warning. If over used, yellow can cause anger and more babies cry when put in a yellow room. That's the bad news.

Now that we have acknowledge the not so happy things about the color yellow, let's accept them and move on to happier times because the color yellow is also known as the happiest color. It signifies joy, intellect and energy along with happiness. It is known to spark creative thoughts, speed the metabolism, and encourage communication. It is an attention grabber- hello, taxi cabs. And it enhances concentration- ah, yellow legal pads anyone?

We will always have good and bad, right? Just as we all have some good and bad in all of us. Let me explain why I am sharing this with you.

I'm here at House of Shine five days a week supporting and encouraging everyone to be their best, to do their best, to believe in themselves and others. Go forth and Shine! Our choice of color supports our energy to spread shine and encourage communication.

But, let's discuss yellow representing cowardice.

Lately, my actions towards certain acquaintances have not supported our principles of Shine. I have not been completely unkind to these persons in front of them but I have been down right rude about them behind their back. And that is not who I want to be. I was being cowardly by not showing kindness to these persons and I was so self involved in what I wanted that I did not realize that not only was I being a coward, I was being a hypocrite.

Tuesday night I was having a philosophical talk with myself in my think-tank of a shower arguing that I dislike when someones actions don't support their words or core values. (Thankfully yellow does not represent insanity.) And the proverbial yellow light bulb went off over my head.

Oh! I dislike this about myself.

So the next day I took the courageious step to try and correct my attitude to support our principles of Shine. I tried a kinder approach, however cautious, with my acquaintance and though I have a bumpy road in front of me, I am aware of needing this improvement.

You can't pick and choose when you're going to Shine. You just choose to Shine.

Are there areas in your life where your actions do not support your words, values or principles? We are all works in progress. I ask you to take a look at the areas in your life where you may need improvement and then boldly (or cautiously) take steps to improve because whatever we put out into the world will return to us.

Shining off until Monday... when we will hopefully Spread Shine through the Yellow Envelope Project.

P.S. Don't forget to participate in the Send Me Some Love Contest!