Labels are tricky. When we view the world through our labels, we may never see it as it is. Yet, names and labels can also give us distinctions that expand what we see.
That’s how it is for me and the fall colors I adore. I grew up thinking of them as yellow, orange, brown, and red. Now I’m hungry for words that capture more richly what I observe. So this week I went on a color hunt.
Merriam Webster gave me quite a few names for fall colors to choose from:
| Sepia – a brown-gray to olive-brown. | Amber – a dark yellow-orange |
| Gamboge – a vivid yellow | Scarlet – a bright red |
| Crimson – a dark purplish-red | Maroon – a dark reddish-brown |
| Auburn – a reddish-gold shade of brown | Lurid – a pale yellow like dying leaves |
| Carnelian – a reddish-orange or brownish-red | Russet – a reddish-brown |
I wanted more. I found them at the website Simplicable:
| Autumn maple | Bark |
| Bronze | Ochre |
| Harvest Gold | Burnt sienna |
| Burnt orange | Vermilion |
| Copper | Rust |
I wanted to eat some of the shades:
| Mustard | Chai |
| Pumpkin | Chestnut |
| Persimmon | Honey brown |
| Burnt Almond | Roasted pecan |
| Caramel | Chocolate |
I’ll stop there–knowing there are many more to choose from. The colors outside my window are beautiful even without names. Yet the names expand my imagination as well as my palette.
As I pause to love the colors, I invite you to catch up on recent posts.
In Did Darwin Get It Wrong?, I explore whether Darwin thought human evolution is about “survival of the fittest” or survival of the kindest.
In How to become expert at beginner’s mind, I celebrate the importance of experts and the joy of being a beginner.
In How to love what you don’t like (to do), I offer four steps that can transform what we don’t feel like doing (for me, taxes) into something that might even be pleasurable.
In To Bless the Space Between Us, I remembered 9-11 by asking the question: What good could live between you and me for the sake of us–what could live in the space between us?
The fall colors won’t last much longer. I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am.
