Status Updates From Hot Chocolate on Thursday (...

(Turquoise) “because it’s mysterious and feels like it has magical power. It can make you wait for me in the orange and welcome me back with a smile.”
‘Cindy’s scent seems to permeate Ralph‘s being. He can’t tell if he’s crying or laughing…The evening sun streams in through the window. It will be awhile before he notices the orange bathing them both as if bestowing a blessing.’

‘The thought that hungry people come to his shop, drawn by the bright orange, fills his heart with so much joy that he feels as if he’s sprouted wings and is soaring through the skies.’

‘...he was filled with peace. Was the scent flowers perfume or fruit?…It was truly enchanting…her face breaking into a smile as clear as a blooming lotus.
(Orange) “ because it’s a fun colour. It’s not as assertive as red, and it’s not as eccentric as yellow. It’s warm and inviting and fills people with energy and cheer.”

‘… he finds immense joy in work driven not by numbers but by how he feels.’ Truly a lovely sentiment. Which unfortunately is slightly tainted by the fact that’s a few sentences later, it describes how Ralph when he was 37, “fell in love” (supposedly) with a woman in the same apartment unit next to his, that was 15 years younger than him, which is icky.

‘Maybe it’s because he makes you feel that he genuinely cherishes even the briefest interaction with you. Ralph’s sunny smile is always full of heart.

But when beautiful flowers bloom on his balcony, and he has no one to whom he can turn and say, “Look at that,” he feels a pang of loneliness.’

‘‘I cry…I shatter the heavy and unyielding thing that I’ve been clinging to, pretending it was important and that I needed it. Deep down. I knew it all along—I wanted to let it go. Now at last, I’m truly free.’
“Thank you,” for loving me… i’m starting to feel like myself again.’

‘I wanted to leave home...I wanted to get as far away as possible. (This green) is what saved me.’
“There are people who will be saved by your green. You are drawing “you”-yourself, the artist and also “you”-the viewer. Each person will surely find a piece to connect with.”

‘ The precious greens I had painted were torn and thrown away. But I couldn’t bring myself to ‘stop’. It felt like I had been torn apart and thrown into the trash. I could only watch my heart hardening, without shedding a single tear. I thought my mother‘s word was the law.
“You’re such a disappointment. How can I love a daughter who can’t make friends and only draws things like this?”

‘My mother always used to say, “why can’t you be normal like other kids? You keep drawing green pictures and collecting green things. It’s weird, pointless. Something must be wrong with you.”
‘My teacher said that I should get a psychiatric evaluation and from then on my mother never smiled at me again.’

“To me, they all look distinct. Each one is lovely. Happiness, joy, love, anger, affection, passion—I feel them all.”
“So I can carry on being like I am?” I’m surprised by the words that drop out of my mouth. The door that I thought was closed seems to have swung open. The words I’ve been holding back begin to tumble out.‘

‘…this place overflowed with my green. I felt welcomed. This was the first time I felt that green lived me back…My green. Green and me.’

‘—it possessed a fearless vitality, but beneath the surface there was an inescapable fragility and melancholy. The trees looked like they dancing and the leaves looked like they were singing. The green drew me in.’

‘The colour green has always enchanted me. It’s a feeling too intense to simply describe as my liking it. Green is my friend, my talisman, my memory, my future. It soothes me and energises me…I never felt alone when I had the colour green. What dogs or cats or music or books are for some people, green has always been for me. That’s why I always keep green close to me’.