I came across something today, that completely astonished me.
It's been a while since I ventured into a department store, but I needed socks for Lucy and the time had come to brave the fluoro lights and rampant consumerism that is shoveled into your psyche the moment you step into their world.
We dodged *most* of the plastic brightness that attracts tiny tots like a moth to a flame and lost ourselves in the maze of clothing racks that towered above us both. And then we found the children's clothes. This is what greeted us:
Walls of gender defined and delineated racks of pink and purple, blue and white.
Unless you were an infant, and then you were given the choice of pink, white or grey.
In fact, grey was a colour that crossed both genders and age brackets. Grey. Who on earth chooses to dress their child in grey? Their child, barely earthside from the realm of magic. Full of joy, excitement, wonder and delight! Grey????
Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I need to get my colour therapy book out and look up the energetic and medicinal benefits of wearing grey. Maybe.
Grey reminds me of dismal days, when the cloud closes in, blocking the radiance and energy of the sun, and refuses to actually rain. Of dreary moods and sad souls. Hardly the colour of children, full of the spectrum of brilliance!
Which brings me to my gratuity of the day.
Choice.
The option to purchase my child's clothes (and my own!) from the myriad of choices available to us. Which, in our case, is mostly thrift shops, weekend markets and ebay. Clothes that were en vogue months, if not years before, making them mostly original to wear now.
And when I'm really lucky, I find clothes that include all the colours of the rainbow - yellow, orange, green, blue, purple and red. Sometimes, even a combination in the one item!
The force-feeding of pink when it comes to our girl children makes me more than a little nauseous. And I must say, it warms my heart no end to hear my button say to me "I'm done with pink now, Mama. I'm into green, blue and light orange".
*sigh*
So, lilac slippers and ruby red shoes it is *grin*.
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