To tell you about each and all of these wonderful people would take, well, a lifetime (and it has) and so I will tell you about all of them--by telling you about just one. Her name is Katelyn.
Katelyn is one of those people who lights up the room when she walks in. She makes you feel precious, loved, and special, and I never leaver her but that I feel that I am a better (and happier) person than I was when she found me. In short, Katelyn is an orange person. What do I mean by that? Well, let me take you back to a conversation we had some weeks ago--Saturday, November 14th.
It was a relatively warm day for November. My hands would get chilly when I took them out of the pockets of my navy-blue sweater, and I was thankful for long socks beneath my jeans. It was a cold day for a native Georgian, but, like I said, relatively warm for Utah.
The air was dry and crisp, as it always is in Utah. Even in rainstorms, the air feels dry compared to the stanch humidity of Georgia. It means the nuisance of having to put on lotion at least three times a day, but it also means the brown and scarlet leaves strewn over the sidewalks make a beautiful crunching sound beneath my feet as I walk.
The walk to Katelyn's place is a long one by anyone's standards other than my own. Having no mode of transportation aside from my own two feet, I'm accustomed to long walks, and, the honest truth is, I rather enjoy them.
As I walked, I sang. I talked to myself. I turned around often to look at the mountains. I checked the time on my phone. I talked to myself again. I listened to the crunch of the leaves and the noises of traffic. I checked the time again. 2:30. I was right on schedule.
Some weeks earlier, my sister, Kylie, and her husband, Josh, had taken me to get a root beer float at possibly the most adorable little shop in all of Provo: Pop 'n Sweets. If Willy Wonka owned a tiny little shop in the heart of Provo, this would be it. Along all the walls are bottles of all shapes, sizes, and colors, filled with sodas of all sorts of flavors--"Butter Beer," "Chocolate and Bacon Breakfast Surprise," "Blood Orange and Cranberry Tart," "Sasquatch Sarsparilla," "Cotton Candy Dream" . . . .
The center of this tiny shop is cluttered with displays of various candies and chocolates from a wide span of places and eras. And in the back of the shop is the counter where Katelyn and I sat on our red, cushioned bar stools and sipped our free root beer floats (our prize for taking an online survey).
My original plan had been to go to Pop 'n Sweets later that evening, but Katelyn was going on a date that night and had informed me that she was rather busy with homework and the like, so 2:30 had been our best option. I was surprised, then, when, over an hour later, we were still sitting at the "Mormon bar" talking. It was as though both we and the night had drunken from the waters of Tuck Everlasting, and I soaked in every minute.
By the time we were making the walk back to Katelyn's apartment, the sun was beginning to set, casting a warm orange glow on the mountains.
Katelyn remarked that she loves when the mountains turn orange and I made some remark on how orange used to be my least favorite color but has since become my favorite. "Have I told you this story?" I asked Katelyn.
"No," she replied.
Perhaps you've heard it said that all good stories start with "Once upon a time," but in my experience, most good stories start with "no," as did this one.
"When I was little," I began, "my mother read to us a book called I Love You the Purplest." I turned to Katelyn, "Have you read it?"
Katelyn responded in the negative and so an explanation was in order.
Essentially, I Love You the Purplest is about two brothers who asked their mother which of them she loved the most. If you have a sibling and have asked your mother this question you've probably gotten the typical "You're my favorite second-oldest daughter" or "You're my favorite oldest son." The mother in this story decides to, instead, give each of her sons a color. "I love you the redest," she says to one. And to the other, "I love you the bluest."
Well, at some point in our childhood, my sister and I got smart and decided to ask my mother what color she loved us the best. And she loved me the orangest. At the time, orange and purple were my least favorite colors--the only colors, in fact, that I didn't like. So you can imagine I was a little disappointed that she loved me the orangest--that is, until she told me why.
I reminded her of the sunrise--and the sunset. I reminded her of the sunrise because I was always hopeful, positive, and radiant. I reminded her of the sunset because it is calm and peaceful and because the world feels like a better place after a sunset.
Katelyn told me about one of the goals her uncle had shared with her--one that she had subsequently adopted as her own. The goal was simple and it was this: to leave people better than you find them.
"It's just like you were saying," she told me. "It's an orange thing." She paused, smiled, and then paid me one of the greatest compliments I've ever received, "You really are an orange person, Brooke. I'm always happier when I'm around you."
Have you ever been paid a compliment you weren't sure you really deserved but wanted to and so you resolved to do things that would make yourself feel worthy of it? I had just been told I was an orange person by one of the orangest people I know. Of course I didn't feel worthy. And so all month I've thought about that simple goal--to leave people better than I find them. And can I just tell you it has been an incredible month.
Now, every time I look at the mountains, I think of the conversation we had on our walk back from Pop n Sweets that night in early November. I look at the orange mountains and I want to be like them. I want to make people happy. I want to inspire them with just a glimpse of their unlimited potential and beauty. I want to leave people with a smile. With a lighter heart and with the knowledge that they are loved. I want to leave people better than I found them.
In short, I want to be like Katelyn--and all the other wonderfully orange people I have been blessed to know and love in this wonderfully orange world.
*to read more about this and how to "Leave People Better than You Found Them", check out Katelyn's latest blog post "Leave Them Better Than You Found Them"
