Grey

They said my name means, “From the grey fortress”, and that seems to be the color that follows me from place to place. Maybe grey ain’t the best color, but it gets me pretty far. I live my life in that grey area. Most of us do. Bein’ a libra, everything Is grey. Can’t be black or white, nope, life ain’t like that. That is one of the things I learned early on. Soon as you get your mind set on black or white, you find grey. It was grey the whole time. Now you may be thinkin’ nobody likes grey. Well, grey ain’t the prettiest color, but it’s got its uses. That color of the sky right before a thunderstorm, the color of that bright old moon shining over us, the color of my eyes if you actually think about what color they are. I have been told they ain’t blue, but grey. Everybody always said I had pretty eyes, so must not be a bad thing. Most people don’t realize it, but they are living right there in the grey. If it weren’t for grey, there wouldn’t be no other choices. Maybe it would be easier, havin’ a life with less choices, but that ain’t the reality. We need grey. When everything shiny and new fails, we need old dependable grey. Only problem is, grey can be sad too. Like the day I watched my grandma get put into the ground, that day was grey. Grey ain’t always fun, but it also makes you who you are, and it is there when everything else is gone. You can feel grey. I know it’s the color of my soul. Maybe it used to be blue, or maybe yellow, but I can feel it now, grey. I used to think it was a bad thing, holding onto old heavy grey. But now I know it was the color I was meant to carry, no less than silver, and almost the same really. In the right light, it does shine like silver. Like my grandma’s hair, or my Daddy’s old corvette, or that pretty necklace my mama gave me…silver, but grey too. That is the thing about grey, just needs a little light for it to shine, and you wonder if it wasn’t that color all along… makes me remember the old silver spoons have turned grey and I need to polish them up before it goes too long… like me… need to polish me up before I turn grey. It’s comin' soon too. I used to fear it, but now I embrace it. It makes me strong, solid, I can always count on grey being there. Before too long, I will watch this brown hair turn to grey, and I will know this is what was meant to happen. It happens to all of us, it is inescapable. We can spend out lives running from it, but that don’t do no good now does it? Better to embrace all that grey, make it a part of you. Then it don’t sneak up and surprise you, because you know it’s comin’. Acceptin’ it makes you stronger in the long run. Grey is the color of acceptance, of knowin’ your limits, but also knowin’ your power. And It’s the only choice, really, because nobody can run from it, can they? Can’t run from it forever anyway. Ashes are grey. And ashes we become. We are born grey, and we die grey. It was there before we even opened our eyes to the world, and it will be there when we close them….grey. And that is okay.