Only Clay…Coloring The Grays

Our journey through life is truly an amazing one...keeping in mind that we have the power and the free will to edit certain parts of our own manuscript...It can be astounding or unexceptional depending on the scenes and acts woven together to create our personal scripts written so long ago by the Master Weaver Himself.

We have moments, days and whole periods of time where the colors of our lives are intermittently vibrant, pastel, black or varying shades of gray.

I think, perhaps, that God has already painted all of our moments with His palette just as He has painted the scenery of the seasons we witness year after year. Spring holds a mixture of vibrant shades as well as pastel hues from the brightest red poppies to the palest pink snapdragons. Our ideal summer is awash in bright azure skies aglow with golden sunlight and blue-green oceans tapping our shores. Autumn is just breathtaking in vibrant, riotous color schemes as He paints the leaves in our changing landscape from rich greens, to vivid golds, oranges and glorious reds. Those of us fortunate enough to live in a region that hosts the mighty trees cloaked in these dazzling colors witness panoramic vistas of these majestic paintings across cerulean skylines. Last but not least in our vortex of seasons is winter…a mixture of varying shades of white and blue-gray skies to shimmering scenes of dark green pine boughs laden with puffs of newly fallen snow whose appearance, when blanketing city and countryside alike…whether viewed under glittering sunlight, darkened skies and moonlight or the warm glow of street lamps glistens with diamond-like sparkles.

I would venture to say that our lives are colored in more or less the same way as our seasons, dependent upon what is going on personally for us at any given time. Even our age brackets are broken down and referenced by the seasons…the springtime of our lives refers to the time of our birth through to perhaps our twenties. The summer of our lives might range from our thirties to our forties…in the autumn of our lives we would be in our fifties and sixties and the winter of our life would be our seventies on up.

In our lifetime we wear a variety of colors with so many varying shades…ever changing hues, tinting the essence of our journey. I would think that a first love riveted and steeped with copious amounts of emotions would represent vibrant colors in the newness of it all. Pastel shades make me think of newborn babies, the softness of their delicate skin, the down like feel of silken hair and the clean, fresh smell babies have induced by a mixture of powders and lotions made just for them. The darkest shades of color are present during times of sadness, loss, pain and suffering. The blackest time is the passing of a loved one or a cherished friend, it is the most opposite of every other color in the spectrum.

But the Grays…well the grays fill in all the empty sort of spaces that fall through the cracks and crevices in the pilgrimage throughout our lifetime. The grays can consume and overtake, they sprawl and spread like the gray veins within a slab of white marble. It is these very grays that need attention for if they go unnoticed they are sure to wound and scar more deeply then the greater travesties of life.

Clay Aiken is the mortar that fills the cracks and crevices in my life. He takes the grays away and replaces them with rosy hues, dotted here and there throughout my daily world.

I have lived most of the seasons of color in my walk with Clay through this portion of my journey. I would not, could not ever have suspected that a young, skinny kid would come along on a TV talent show no less…and steal my heart away! But, he did and has colored my days in the loveliest shades and hues ever since!

When Clay is laughing and being silly or dishing his comic wit, he makes me laugh so hard and brings such joy and those moments are painted in the brightest of primary colors…like bunches of balloons at a carnival in brilliant colors of red, blue green and yellow…I must throw orange into the mix too…this is Clay I’m talking about…the green or orange debate is alive and well!!

Depending on the love song he is singing, Clay can bring two scenarios into my reverie…one might present a picture of a fireplace with a couple in love seated before it and propped up by overstuffed pillows…they gaze longingly into each others eyes, eyes that are filled with so much love and the colors of the golden orangey flames become prominent, the crackle and pop of burning wood is heard, the snap in the October air is felt and he brings to me the colors of an autumn evening wrapped up in warmth, love and oh so many possibilities!

Another love song might bring to mind a young new love sprouting and the couple, walking hand in hand through awakening green forests and golden fields breathes in the fresh air of springtime with all its glorious colors, hues and smells. Dazzling water, dappled by bright yellow sunlight splashes happily, carelessly over small boulders in a meandering brook, the couple walks amid patches of wild strawberries reddening and ripening at that very moment. The scent of wild orange blossoms fill the air and they spy pastel shades of snapdragons in the palest pinks, yellows and lavenders swaying in the gentle spring breezes. White daises with bright yellow centers dot the landscape while cream colored Queen Anne’s lace add a stately but delicate air to the scenery. The young couple stop for a moment so caught up in each other, to kiss deeply and ardently as the sensations of spring brings the rebirth of God’s gifts to life and they are serenaded by Blue Jays, orange and black Oriels and crimson Cardinals as they fly through azure skies. Clay brings back the colors and feelings of youth to my life.

Clay Aiken can take away all my gray feelings and the gray areas of my life just by listening to his amazing, angelic voice…he replaces those grays with warmth, life and love during that song and for long periods afterward. Only he can make me laugh out loud in the quiet of my car while listening to his comments and silliness during the Juke Box Tour emanating from my CD player!

Only Clay can bring back the feelings of youth and the rock ‘n roll era I grew up in, only Clay can spice up or warm up an otherwise dull gray day, only Clay can fill my head with scenes and pictures so detailed, so colorful with just one song and the way he gives his whole spirit and soul to that one song…with every single one he sings. Only Clay can bring ethereal images, divine angels with glowing halos and sky blue heavens embellished by silvery clouds to mind while singing, perhaps, a Christmas song and losing himself, going to that nirvana he goes off to within it. Only Clay can make me feel the warmth of his hug while wrapped up in one of his songs…only Clay, can bring romance back to love songs as he paints a promising picture of his new romance inspired CD “A Thousand Different Ways” professedly filled with nothing but Love Songs.

Only Clay, ever since he sang the first few words to Always and Forever…has unwrapped my gift of writing and allowed it to emerge anew…I had forgotten how absolutely freeing it is to write and express oneself…Only Clay can fill my grays until they are changed to the exquisite colors, shades and hues of God’s signature rainbow. Only Clay!!

Epilogue: My essay would not be complete without a dip into the other side of Clay’s life…not as a stunning singer but also as an amazing humanitarian…so, one other way that Clay Aiken colors my grays is seeing him engrossed in his philanthropic loves and endeavors. There is nothing more soul stirring then to see Clay with children. To watch the gentleness with which he holds a baby, to see the brightest smiles on his face and most scintillating looks in his eyes while sharing his stage, singing with a child, viewing pictures and videos of Clay in Indonesia and Uganda fulfilling his roll as a UNICEF Ambassador…as Clay’s inner light and good-hearted spirit pour out and come to life for all to see… these scenarios and visages color my grays with a most luminescent light, the light of a golden glow that permeates, bathes and colors my soul! These scenes are soothing and healing…and they and he…touches my heart as only Clay can!