Like A Rainbow

Our card today reminds us that everything we need comes from nature, especially color.

This is not a rant about red dye 40, but it's worth considering whether or why we need artificial colors anyway.

If you walk through a museum, the most beautiful pigments historically were derived from plants, from insects, and from minerals in the earth.

Why is it that we need our colors to be artificially bright? Artificially brilliant? Artificially... colored?

Nature is already a rainbow. Even the colors we see in an *actual rainbow* are created by the natural process of reflection and refraction.

Now, if you're not an artist, a chef, or anything else that uses colored dyes on the regular, you don't have to take this card literally. Instead ask:

What gives your life color? And is it real? Or artificial?

Ow. That one really hits in a year where AI content is everywhere.

From the art that you hang on your walls to the clothes you put on your body, to the TV you watch in your spare time, this week consider where the beauty in your life is coming from.

And, if it's a million miles removed from "nature" (yes, I am looking at Love Island or The Bachelor vs. say, a romance novel, vs. actually living your own romantic life) get curious about why.

Curiosity is the theme this week - not judgement.

If your life is full of artificial anything, get curious about why that might be. Are you eating Twinkies instead of homemade pound cake because you legitimately think it tastes better? Or because you don't have the time, the knowledge, or the other resources you require to get what you want in a more natural (possibly more meaningful) state?

Often, artifice of this kind is a way to take the easy way out, to save time and money. (Red dye 40 turns a petroleum byproduct into a cash cow for the food industry, after all). And while the McDonald's drive through has its place, we all know it's not the same as a burger fresh off the grill eaten with good friends.

If your "fake food" or "fake colors" are serving a time/money saving purpose, then ask: what are you saving that time for?

Many of our modern "conveniences" take us further away from our natural state, often to our detriment. Others (like pasteurized milk, vaccines, central air) help keep us safe and let us grow and thrive in a world of natural dangers.

This week consider how you've become removed from "natural" beauty, and what might happen if you made returning to it a priority.

Here are some challenges you can try to bring this into practice:

• Shop a local farmer's market this week
• Research something in a local library instead of asking AI
• Make a meal from scratch. Invite someone to share it.
• Go makeup-free for a day
• Do your movement practice outside instead of in a gym

Or come up with your own! I'd love to know what it is.

P.S. The art in this newsletter (aside from the cards themselves) was gifted to me by artist Julia Guzzio, because I don't want artificial art in my emails <3