Blue is the Color of Longing (Quote by Rebecca Solnit)

Blue is the Color of Longing (Quote by Rebecca Solnit)
Blue quote by Rebecca Solnit

Gentle Spring Breeze (pastel) by Polly Castor

“The world is blue at its edges and in its depths.

This blue is the light that got lost. Light at the blue end of the spectrum does not travel the whole distance from the sun to us. It disperses among the molecules of the air, it scatters in water. Water is colorless, shallow water appears to be the color of whatever lies underneath it, but deep water is full of this scattered light, the purer the water the deeper the blue.

The sky is blue for the same reason, but the blue at the horizon, the blue of land that seems to be dissolving into the sky, is a deeper, dreamier, melancholy blue, the blue at the farthest reaches of the places where you see for miles, the blue of distance. This light that does not touch us, does not travel the whole distance, the light that gets lost, gives us the beauty of the world, so much of which is in the color blue.

For many years, I have been moved by the blue at the far edge of what can be seen, that color of horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away. The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of where you are not. And the color of where you can never go. For the blue is not in the place those miles away at the horizon, but in the atmospheric distance between you and the mountains.

‘Longing,’ says the poet Robert Hass, ‘because desire is full of endless distances.’

Blue is the color of longing for the distances you never arrive in…”

by Rebecca Solnit from A Field Guide for Getting Lost

Springtime Blues (pastel) by Polly Castor

 

Enchanted Glen (oil) by Polly Castor

 

July (pastel) by Polly Castor

 

Serendipity (oil) by Polly Castor

 

Starlit Lagoon (pastel) by Polly Castor

I work to amplify good wherever I find it. I love color, texture, beauty, great ideas, nature, metaphor, deliciousness, genuine spirituality, and exploring new territory. I encourage authenticity, nurture creativity, champion sustainability, promote peace, and hope to foster a new renaissance where we all are free to be our most fulfilled, multifaceted, and terrific selves. Read more here.

1 Comment

  1. John gregory 3 years ago

    Spring time blues is lovely…

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