When I was in college, an outspoken and very down-to-earth friend told me that I looked at life through rose-colored glasses.  And in my idealistic and naive way, I defended my ideals as upstanding and moral!  I didn’t think there was anything wrong with looking through rose-colored glasses!

One evening last week as the sun was low in the sky, the world outside our windows became rose-colored.  The reds and pinks of the autumn leaves intensified, while the yellows and oranges glowed with a rosy light.  The fallen leaves were pink, and even the grey-brown tree trunks blushed.

I looked up the meaning of the phrase ‘to see the world through rose-colored glasses’:

• an unduly cheerful, optimistic, or favorable view of things; sanguine
• idealistic; don’t see reality for what it is; naive
• to see the positive in things while being oblivious to the negative
• to see things as being better than they really are

It is interesting that the word ‘sanguine’ is related to ‘sanguinaria’–a spring-blooming, woodland perennial called blood-root and also means a moderate to strong red color–along with cheerfulness and optimism.

I have lived my life with a favorable view of people and things.  I admit to being naive and idealistic.  I have closed my eyes to the ‘bad’ things in life.  I believe in second chances and seeing the good in people.

My son Aaron and his friend were canoeing and fishing when the rose-colored evening settled over us.  He said it was disorienting to navigate the canoe when the sky, the water, and the land all glowed in that rosy color.

And I became disoriented when I met a wolf in sheep’s clothing, when a trusted person lied in front of me, when I saw people take advantage of me and others, when people who should have helped me, didn’t–all things that should not happen, that could not happen in a rose-colored world.  The ultimate reality check.

I held onto that world for way too long and suffered the consequences, and unfortunately, I also didn’t teach my children how to handle those wolves in sheep’s clothing.  My new mantra is ‘get real!’  It’s a hard lesson to learn after all those decades.

So the rose-colored evening brought to mind the bigger picture of my life.  It really did change the true colors of everything.  I still like to look at the positives of people and life, but I am no longer oblivious to the negatives.

As to that evening–I like to think that God was seeing things as better than they really are.