Have you ever gone on a rainbow walk?
Moments from my wild and colourful life (May 10-16)
Hi friend! If youāre new here: most weeks, I send out a little dispatch from my daily life in the UK. Itās a collection of stories and things Iāve noticedāat home, in books, on my walks, in the world, and within myself. I send them all from The Lighthouse. My hope is they feel reflective and calming, and inspire you to notice more in your own life. Writing them certainly helps me notice more in mineā¦ šÆ
May 10, 2025
Itās mid-afternoon and weāve arrived at the beach. The plan had been to go for a hike in the Lakes today, but I looked at the (incredible) forecast and was also honest with myself about how tired Iāve been lately, and asked if we could consider another option. Would you be up for doing a beach walk instead? His answer was along the lines of yes, whatever you want love, etc. and I believed him. Itās taken a long time, but I finally trust that Tall Man really likes when I say what I want/need. I do want to hike, but I need to be near water.
When we arrive, we grab our bags and walk across the sand dunes and down to the shore. We walk south along the beach, until we pass all the humans, then find a secluded spot to have lunch. We put down the picnic blanket he got for my 37th birthday, eat our food, then lay back and soak up the sun. Itās 22Ā°C (72Ā°F) and we have nothing to do and nowhere to be.
I do my usual bit where I marvel at how gorgeous the beaches are here and how soft the sand is. Victoria is one of the most beautiful places to call home, but we do not have sand like this. Most of our beaches are covered in rocks. We talk about all the colours we see in the sand. The black stands out mostāprobably remnants of coal-mining activities, which used to be the main industry in the North East. This day feels like yellow sunshine and blue sky and water, and puffy white clouds, and the warm sandy beach. But thereās a little bit of black too.
Before we get up to leave, we talk about how relaxed we both feel, how nice it is to see one another look so relaxed and content, and how good this day has been overall. Then TM asks if we want to give ourselves the gift of not having to cook dinner or do dishes. We walk back to his car and head north to find fish and chips by the sea!
May 11, 2025
Beach day is followed by chores day. I tell TM Iād happily help with some of the jobs around his house, and he asks me to grab a piece of paper from the cupboard. TM and I are similar in so many ways, including how we organize our homes. The one big difference is that he has a bit more stuffābut the way most parents do! Stuff to keep your kids entertained! Like arts and crafts supplies! I open the cupboard and dig through a stack of coloured paperāthe kind I havenāt seen since I was a kidāand decide to go for the brightest one I see. āOrange is the colour of the day!ā He takes it and turns it into a list of all the jobs with little checkboxes next to each one. By the end of the day, weāve checked off every single one. I add an āA++ā for us at the top!
May 12, 2025
I arrive home from the weekend at TMās and discover a surprise. It seems Iāve been the victim of a little childish vandalism. Thereās pink ice cream rubbed all over my front door and two pink popcicle sticks on the step. I notice my back gate is open, and discover plastic wrappers from more ice cream treats in my garden. I know exactly who did this. I know, because other neighbours have told me theyāve had to put locks on their gates to stop him (a 6-7 year old boy down the road) from going into their back gardens.
I wish I could stay calm or not be too bothered by this incident, but I am angry. It feels like a massive violation, to know someone was snooping around your house while you were away. I can also hear my dad telling me to get a lock, because the last thing you want is for someone to injure themselves on your property. Itās a violation and a safety/insurance concern.
Later, I look at the date and realize I got the keys to The Lighthouse exactly three years ago today. I share this with TM, along with a picture of the door covered in ice cream. āHappy anniversary!?ā he replies. Happy anniversary to The Lighthouse, indeed.
And then I walk into town and start my search for a lock.
May 13, 2025
Itās just shy of 10am and Iām walking through the grocery store parking lot, when I spot an older man in a bright purple shirt with a mini burlap shopping bag in his hand. It has an illustration of an orange and white striped lighthouse on it, surrounded by blue and white waves. I wonder where that bag is from? I think. And what does he carry around in there? This man is not going to the grocery store, and neither am I. Iām walking to the coffee shop, and Iām on a mission: to get a cheese scone to go with my lunch. Lucky me, itās fresh out of the oven! Golden and shiny and hot in my hand! And it goes perfectly with my red tomato basil soupā¦
Later, I test out a few different locks and find one that fits my gate. Itās gold too.
May 14, 2025
I start the Zoom meeting for a call with a paid subscriber, and the first thing I notice is the tapestry hanging on her wall. NOTE: I will not write about these calls or what anyone shares with me. These calls are for you, not for public consumption! But I am so drawn to the colours Iām seeing: a rainbow of soft tones, with an image depicting someone kayaking down a river with mountains all around. I think they were kayaking, anyway. All I can remember are the coloursā¦ and, how good this call felt. I finished it feeling energized, which is always a sign Iām doing work that feels good and right-sized for me.
May 15, 2025
One of my favourite things about living in this town is how walkable it is. I can go in any direction, and be out for as long (or as short) as I want to. When I step out the front door, I donāt always know where Iām going. I just walk and make lots of little decisions along the way. Thatās how I find myself down at the river today. Then Iām walking along the rocks in the river. I had no intention of coming here, but Iām glad Iām here now. Looking down before taking each step, then looking up at my surroundings. When I face west, I see the blue sky coming in. When I turn around, I see the grey clouds that are passing by. This feels like a metaphor for how Iāve felt lately, and the work it has taken to stop living in the dark and search for the light. I decide to turn towards the blue sky, once again.
May 16, 2025
I wake up feeling inspiredāto write, to workout and thenā¦ to bake! Itās been a couple months since I last baked anything at The Lighthouse. It mightāve actually been the Nanaimo bars I made with friends in February (though you donāt have to bake them in the oven, they set in the fridge). I think Iād like to make some muffins. My first thought is cranberry orange, which was one of my favourite flavours at Marvelous Mmmuffins (RIP) when I worked there as a teenager. Then I look in the fridge to see what I already have and decide on lemon blueberry.
After mixing most of the ingredients together, I turn on the oven and grab the muffin pan and liners. I have all the colours of the rainbow, but choose two: yellow and blue. Itās extremely on the nose, which is just like me to do. Obvious choices, but it really does make them feel more fun (for me!).
As I look down at the muffin pan filled with empty paper liners, the colours remind me of the sun and the sand and the sea and the sky. I start thinking about how colourful this week has been, which inspires an idea for which stories Iāll share in this dispatch.
I feel as though a fog has lifted from me this week, I texted a friend a few days ago. That fog is something I was trying to push past, even ignore. But if you read Aprilās newsletter, it might have been obvious: I was having a hard time last month. Thatās why I missed a few weekly dispatches. When Iām in a darker place internally, I can find it challenging to pay attention to whatās happening externally and look for the light in my life. On Friday morning, I still didnāt know what I wanted to share with you this week. Then I was inspired to put less pressure on the writing and simply focus on the colours.
Have you ever gone on a rainbow walk? Itās when you go for a walk and try to find things in all the colours of the rainbow. Tall Man told me about them a few years ago. Then he went on one, and sent me pictures of something red, orange, yellow, etc. Rainbow walks are a fun way to engage your senses and be more present and potentially find lots of details you wouldnāt normally notice. (They are also a great way to engage kids on walks!) But you can do a simpler version of this practice in daily life too.
You can pick a single colour then try to notice all the ways it shows up in your day. Maybe youāll find it in your closet or cupboards. Maybe youāll see it on a label in the grocery store. Maybe youāll notice it on signs you pass or things people are wearing/holding or in someoneās garden that you walk past. Will today be a pink day? A yellow day? Maybe a purple day? Purple is a good one. It always reminds of the quote from The Color Purple: āI think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field and you donāt notice it.ā I donāt personally believe in God, but I do believe in the power of noticing colours. Itās a simple exercise to ground yourself on anxious or depressed days. You can do it alone. You can share it with a friend (and even send them pictures). You can also write about it. One colour you looked for, or all the colours in your week. I know Iād love to read about it. This is still one of my favourite reads on Substack:
So, Iāll leave you with that, friend. But Iām curious:
Have you ever gone on a rainbow walk?
And/or, have you ever written about colour?
Please feel free to share links to your work in the comments!
xx Cait