The song “Beware of Darkness” from George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album will be fifty years old in November. The whole album is one I’ve never tired of since Riley gave it to me so many years ago. When Harvey drowned my album, it was already in my iTunes. (And I just realized because of all my computer issues and iTunes making way for Apple Music, it is no longer in my iTunes library. Technology is exhausting.)
This was a free downloadable coloring page I worked on while I had one of those dumb four-day headaches I get. This song was very much on my mind, so I overlaid the title on the page.
I can color in little blocks of time, and one thing about coloring is that it gives me time and opportunity simply to think. Very often, I think about what I’m writing since I can’t actually write when I’m in pain. In fact, after the headache finally stopped, I enjoyed a six-hour writing burst that helped me finish a chapter that I’d been thinking about while coloring this. It is a chapter that is happy in many ways but has a thread of darkness woven into it.
I also think about other things. Relationships and friendships. Things going on in the world. Where I am in relation to others and my environment. How to resist darkness. I’m sure there’s a larger list, but here are the dark things that come to mind: Cynicism. Cruelty. Hate. Dishonesty. Indifference. Hopelessness. War. These are the things that light up my “beware” sense so that I can activate my coping mechanisms.
Coloring is one of those mechanisms. Listening to music is another. I think I’m going to do more of these song/coloring page combinations to celebrate this album that continues to resonate with me.