taste the rainbow

whenever i have a bag of skittles {which is like... never... unless hannah has them and i steal them}
i focus on the whole thing.
when i look at that annoyingly crinkly package i pretend like i have x ray vision and i try to look through to see all the little colored, artificially flavored raindrops that would soon be in my mouth.
i look at a pack of skittles as a pack of skittles.

one item.

as a whole.

a bag o skittles.

i was at work the other day handing out these little skittley candies to children
and they each got just one.
with a palm full of skittles i walked to each of them and they picked out their one skittle.
one kid wanted green because it was the color of his shirt.
one wanted purple because it kind of looked like brown.
one wanted red because he said it tasted like apple. and his mom's favorite food is apple.
i watched them holding the skittle, taking time to admire it and compare it to their friends' before popping  it in their mouth and savoring that tiny little piece of candy.

i thought, "these babies are happy with a tiny, individual spherical treat"
they don't look at the whole bag.
they didn't want any more than that one skittle.

at that moment i realized that in life i'm often looking at the whole palm of skittles.
if someone presented me with a palm full then i wouldn't be thinking about just one.
it would take me forever to decide what color i wanted because i would have to pick just one.
these kids just made beautiful little decisions based on something simple and lovely
and they picked their skittle accordingly.

they were thinking about the little pleasures in life
like their mom's favorite food
or the fact that sometimes colors look like other colors
or the fact that they can match their candy to their clothes.
they weren't thinking about all the other colors and flavors they would be missing out on.
just the one they were about to enjoy.

for that moment, they were eating something that tasted like memories of their mom, reminded them that sometimes life can be silly, and that it's cool that there are so many parallels in their world.

they say that you can taste the rainbow with skittles, but you have to taste every color to eat the whole rainbow.
i am constantly wanting to taste the rainbow in life.
constantly.

this little moment reminded me that sometimes tasting the rainbow is really just enjoying one color for a while
for all its purple/green/red/yellow/orange glory.

spend a lil time getting into the colors individually.
red can be so many things.
green can include so many memories.
yellow can allow you to feel so many things.

all the colors are all part of the rainbow...

... so why not ride it one hue at a time?
{photo via skittles.com}