Poem by Sylvia
A million shades of gray
Once I thought life was all black and white
Half a century now gone by…things have gone from day to night
I’ve learned that in the book of life, the words are a colorful array
And everything in between the lines is but a million shades of gray
Once I thought life was all black and white
That everything around me was either wrong or was right
That the world was of nothing but opposite extremes
And then I found that life wasn’t what I saw in my dreams
I once was an idealist and dreamed of everything white
If it wasn’t, it was black and black wasn’t all right
I dreamed of white, pure and good… the color of snow
But over five decades, I have now come to know
Life is as colorful as we choose it to be, but with many shades of gray
Reality lives, and we must understand that the sun doesn’t shine every day
There’s not always a rainbow, there’s not always snow, and darkness doesn’t always thrive…
It’s not the black and the white but the million shades of gray that actually keep us alive
Written by: Sylvia L. Mattingly 11/30/11
Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly 