i've always wondered why people use the term "feeling

blue" when they are sad. The color that clouded my

horizons after Peter died was most certainly gray, not blue. I
felt I was in a bad British mystery movie, in the midst of a
gray, hazy, dense fog and I couldn't find my way through the
mist. I felt a heavy grey cloud looming overhead about to
rain on my soul with even more sadness. My moods were
thick with gray, slightly tinged with a touch of red anger,
railing at my tragedy. I know that since Peter died, I have
many moments when I "feel blue," but I can't fault my
favorite color for my mood.

Recent research published in Psychological Science, a

journal of the Association for Psychological Science,
showed that sadness and emotion could influence various
visual processes that are involved in perceiving color. In this
study the results demonstrated that participants who
watched a sad video clip were less accurate in identifying
colors on the blue-yellow spectrum than participants who
watched funny clips. Could this be the causative factor in
the expression 'feeling blue?'

Some say the word "feeling blue" comes from the tradition
of ships flying blue flags and bearing a painted blue band
when a captain or another officer died. Another origin of "the
blues," is derived from mysticism involving blue indigo,
which was used by many West African cultures in death and
bereavement ceremonies where all the mourners' garments
would have been dyed indigo blue to indicate suffering. This
mystical association toward the indigo plant, translated to
the US and the slaves who worked on cotton in the
Southern plantations, often singing dirge-like songs referred
to as "the blues."

The word "blue" was first used by Chaucer in about 1385, in

his poem, Complaint of Mars. Washington Irving is credited
with having first used the term "the blues" in 1807, as a
synonym for sadness: "He conducted his harangue with a
sigh, and I saw he was still under the influence of a whole
legion of the blues." Irving was shortening the phrase "blue
devils" which was a synonym dating back to Elizabethan
time to describe a menacing presence. "The Blues" as a
musical form, featuring flattened thirds and sevenths, may
have originated around 1895, although officially in W.C.
Handy's Memphis Blues.

For me, blue represents tranquility, harmony, peace, and

relaxation. My house is decorated in blue and white. I don't
find sadness in blue. Blue is also associated with the fifth
chakra, located at the throat and therefore connected to
communication. Someone who speaks the truth is "true
blue." I like the color blue. It makes me see clearly and find
my way in the world in a calm and coherent manner. I have
vowed to continue to look at the blue horizon and avoid the
grey clouds of sadness to find solace and comfort in my
journey towards restoration.

"Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world.

Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will
always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the
picture by including humor, and your picture begins to
lighten up." -- Allen Klein