Anyway, I was looking up at the blue sky, watching as birds flew overhead, and the passage of a few billowy clouds. Certainly, the colors were all vivid around me, as I observed the scene.

But I was thinking of 'darkness'. In her song ''Hands'' Jewel sings ''For light does the darkness most fear.'' But those of us who are drawn to darkness' embrace do not sense that. There is a cool and quiet peace in the stillness of the night.

Why do some fear the darkness? Is it because there is the element of the UNKNOWN lurking in those dark spaces which the eyes can not touch? For those needing everything revealed, this is frustrating at best. Embracing the unknown leaves open the door of possibility, however. If it is not known, anything may be possible.

I think, too, of darkness as it is embraced within the color spectrum. There are two systems of spectrums. One involves the computer and how it displays color on the monitor. The other is the additive pigment method requiring paint, dye, colored pencils and so forth. They are very different in their approach to creating color.

In the computer version, black is the ABSENCE of color, as revealed by the html code "#000000". The three primary colors are different than those in the pigment version. The html code takes the first set of units for the RED factor, the second set for the GREEN factor, and the third set for the BLUE factor. It is by combining degrees of these three factors that all colors can be displayed on the monitor screen.

In this system WHITE consists of the highest quantity for each of the RGB factors, "FFFFFF"

This is not so in the pigment system. WHITE is the absence of all color. The primary colors are RED, YELLOW and BLUE. BLACK is the presence of all color. Actually, black CAN be made using just three colored pencils: red, yellow and blue. Though in practical actuality, you will be using much more BLUE, as it is the darkest of the three factors.

So in one system, BLACK, or total darkness, represents 'absence', that which is yet to be, is not revealed. And in the other system, BLACK represents the presence of the entire rainbow condensed into its densest expression.

To me, metaphysically DARK is both those aspects, absence and totality. This would seem at first to be contradictory. But they are just different ways of looking at it.

This evening, I have let my impressions of darkness inspire me as I created a mandala:

Darkness
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