“But, luckily, he kept his wits and his purple crayon.” – Crockett Johnson
Life can feel like it acts upon us at times, but we are in a position to take charge and start creating the future we want. It doesn’t mean that we’ll like everything we create. Sometimes we’ll even produce pain, fear, and danger for ourselves. But, like Harold and the Purple Crayon, we can be resourceful and get back on track and keep moving toward our destination. It’s time to pick up your purple crayon!
Episode 41 – Show Notes
Episode 41 – Transcript
This is Rebecca Clark. Episode 41 Purple Kranz This’ll Podcast is for anyone that knows they haven’t yet found and offered up their best work but are compelled to seek it out and do it. Are you ready to move your desk? For most of my life, I have not been a fan of purple. In fact, it hasn’t been until the last five years or so that I’ve really appreciated the color purple. And it has to come in just the right shades and tints and Hughes for me to appreciate it. But still, I’ve made a lot of progress that there is one thing about purple that I love, and that is tthe e idea of the purple cran. Now some of you are going to know what I’m talking about right off the bat, and some of you are going to be What’s so special about a purple cran? Well, what’s special about a purple Cran is Harold has a purple cran and Harold was created by Crockett Johnson. He was created over 60 years ago, so I can imagine that some of you that have much life experience have heard of Harold and the Purple Cran Harold is this little boy that’s dressed in pajamas like a big onesie pajamas. And one evening he decides to take a walk, and he has this purple cran and there’s no moon. So he needed a moon and he drew the moon and he needed somethingto walk on. So he drew a sidewalk and he made it so he wouldn’t get lost and so that he could see the moon. He takes this purple cran and he decides he’s not getting anywhere. So he draws some more lines and he decides there should be a forest. So he draws a tree in the process of drawing it. He draws circles on it, and these become apples, and he figured a lot of people would want to eat these apples. So he draws a monster to guard the apples. But the monster frightens him, even though he drew it and he backs away, and he has this shaking purple crayon and he falls into the ocean over his head. But he’s resourceful and he has a purple cran. He’s a fast thinker, and he draws a little boat for him. Get into And of course, this boat need to say. Also, he draws that and he decides he’s done too much sailing. So he quickly puts his purple cran out of the boat and draws land and an anchor to anchor his boat. At this point, he’s hungry, so he wants some pie. And because he has a purple cran that can draw anything he wants. He draws all nine kinds of pies that he likes, and he starts eating. But he’s not hungry enough to eat it all. So he has to draw the hungry moose to eat the rest of the pie. Well, he realizes, at this point, you know, his main goal was actually to find his home, and he knew that if he was up higher, he could see further. So he draws a mountain well, as he is drawing this mountain, he gets a little tired and he picks up his purple cran and he falls right cause there’s nothing beyond what he drew and he falls. But of course, he saved by his own drawing of a hot air balloon, right? So he draws himself in this hot air balloons, we safely lands, and when he lands, he makes a house and he decides that that isn’t actually his house. And so he goes, and he draws some other buildings and realizes those are not quite his house, either. And none of them have windows that look like his window. So he’s thinking, Okay, I’ve seen this house. I’ve seen these buildings. None of them have my window because he remembers how his window looks when he’s in his window or when he’s in his house. So he decides to ask a policeman. Well, of course, he draws the policeman, and he draws it, pointing a certain way. So Harold thanks him, even though he drew it. And he follows this little line. And as he’s following, this little line is creating. He’s looking up and he sees the moon. And then he remembers how the moon looks from his window. And so he draws his window around the moon, and at that point he realizes, OK, this is the right spot. It’s so he draws his bed, he draws himself into his bed, and he goes to sleep after his amazing adventure. Now, I’d read this a few times to my child and one time as we were just in the first couple pages as he starts to draw the moon and the sidewalk, he’d go on, my son said, Oh wow, he gets to draw his own world I said, Yes, he does. And then as you go through the book, you realize, Wait a second. He decided everything to draw. And as he drew certain things, he made certain choices. And some of those choices, like drawing a monster to protect the apple tree, actually caused him to have fear after he made the choice. So he’s fine, creating this tree and putting apples on it and drawing a monster to protect it. But then he gets afraid of the monster he created, and he goes backwards. And he has a shaking cran, which does exemplify, you know, fear and on steadiness. And he creates this ocean that he falls into. So once again he creates something that kind of hurts him. But then he is quick on his thinking and draws a boat for himself. And then he has these other experiences where he creates too much food. So he creates a way for the food to be eaten, and then he creates more buildings and realizes in the process of that. He’s really looking for a particular window and then walking along, realizing Wait a second, forget about the windows, where is the window in relation to the moon. And then he creates that and is able to know that. Then he has arrived and it just seems like there’s so many lessons in here about how we all have the capability to take whatever we have right now in our life and were able to move forward and create our world, create whatever we want and in the process of creating whatever we want for ourselves, we are going to have experiences that we could call mistakes. But they teach us and they keep leading us on the path. It may be a mistake to put a massive monster under an apple tree, but in the process it dumped him in the ocean that he self created. And he came up with the solution of a boat and after the boat he rises. OK, I’ve experienced this long enough. I want a different experience. I want to go on land and being overly excited about that, that he creates access and then wants to share it with this moves to make sure it’s not wasted and then, you know, climbing a mountain and falling off the mountain and finding a balloon to save it. It’s so much of Rhea life, of the ups and downs of the choices we make. But at the end of the day, we have these moments where we can stop and reflect and go Wait a second. What was I really searching for? Oh, that’s right. There’s the goal. There’s the moon where oh, I in relation to that moon. And then we get really clear and then contain very simple and defined actions in the right direction to get where we want to be. I love the idea that we each have a cran and mine probably isn’t Purple Mind might be turquoise or another color, but the point is, is that we all do have this within us. We do have a cran. We do have experiences, skills, mistakes, all of these things that were meant for our experience and good, and that we can use those as we continue to move forward and create the life we want or the person we want to become. And we will make mistakes on that journey. We will scare ourselves. We will put ourselves in harm’s way. We will do things in access excess access, one of those words, and we will learn the lessons we need to. And then we’ll have these moments where we stop and reflect and look at the goal and be reminded of everything to that point and then take steps forward in whatever direction we’re going. And we can be like Harold, we can create our world, whatever it’s supposed to be. And like Harold, we may not know that next step until we turn the page, but we do have to turn the page and take the next action, and it’s all part of the experience. So I know I referenced thes Children’s books a lot along the way, But there’s some valuable lessons in them. So pick up your purple cran. Thanks for listening to the show today. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you’d write a review and share the show with your friends, sign up for a weekly nudge at move your desk dot com. See you next Monday
