In a house bursting with sunshine lived a little girl named Lily. Lily loved everything bright and colorful, but especially paint! Her room was a rainbow explosion, with splatters of sunshine yellow across the walls and a giant canvas always propped up in the corner.
But there was one curious thing about Lily’s paintings. She only ever used three colors: a bright, cheerful yellow, a deep, calming blue, and a fiery, happy red. These were her favorite colors, and she loved mixing them on her palette, creating beautiful pictures of yellow sunflowers swaying in blue fields or red ladybugs crawling on blue leaves.
One sunny afternoon, Lily was busy painting a picture of a red bird perched on a yellow branch. Suddenly, there was a knock on her door. It was her friend Ethan, a boy with a mischievous grin and a paint-splattered shirt in every color imaginable.
“Hey, Lily!” Ethan greeted, peeking at her painting. “Cool bird! But why is everything so… yellow and blue and red?”
Lily dipped her brush in a dollop of sunshine yellow. “These are my happy colors,” she explained. “They make my paintings bright and cheerful!”
Ethan scratched his head. “But the world isn’t just yellow, blue, and red, is it? Look outside! There are green leaves on the trees, and pink flowers blooming, and even purple clouds sometimes!”
Lily tilted her head, considering this. She’d never thought about using other colors. Her world, at least on her canvas, was a happy land of just three hues.
“Why don’t you try using some other colors?” Ethan suggested, pulling out his own paintbox overflowing with every shade imaginable.
Lily hesitated. What if the other colors spoiled her happy paintings? But Ethan’s smile was so infectious, she decided to give it a try. He squeezed a blob of green paint onto her palette.
“Mix it with a little yellow,” Ethan instructed. Lily did, and a vibrant lime green bloomed on the tray. Tentatively, she dipped her brush and dabbed a tiny green leaf on her yellow branch.
Something magical happened. The single green leaf brought the branch to life. It looked real, with veins and texture that the plain yellow hadn’t captured.
Ethan grinned. “See? Now mix a little blue with some red.” Lily followed his instructions, and a beautiful purple bloomed. She added a tiny purple flower to the branch, and it looked even more alive.
Lily’s eyes widened. With each new color she mixed, a whole new world bloomed on her canvas. There were orange butterflies fluttering around the purple flowers, and a soft brown nest tucked amongst the green leaves. The red bird, now perched on a vibrant branch, looked even happier.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, Lily gazed at her completed artwork. It wasn’t just yellow, blue, and red anymore. It was a world bursting with color, just like the world outside her window.
“Wow,” she whispered, a smile blooming on her face. “My painting is even happier now!”
Ethan chuckled. “See? Different colors can come together to make something even more beautiful. Just like different people, with different personalities and backgrounds, can come together to make a wonderful world.”
Lily thought about it. Her three happy colors were still there, but now they were part of something bigger, something more beautiful. She realized that just like her painting, the world was richer and brighter because of its diversity.
That night, as Lily drifted off to sleep, she dreamt of a world painted with every color imaginable, a world where all the colors lived in harmony, just like on her canvas. She knew, from then on, that her paintings would always be a celebration of color, and a celebration of beauty and variety that makes the world such a happy place.
By Lily and Mommy
