Today's Card - Righteous Raspberry

Today's Color Wisdom Card
Righteous Raspberry

Today's card is another from the red spectrum, it's Righteous Raspberry, and she says "I have the same high standards for myself as I do for others."  Again we take into consideration the powers of vitality, passion, and energy that come with pure red but with raspberry we have a touch of purple in the mix. This adds a bit of connection to the higher consciousness which when combined with the power of red can lead us into a very direct path with our goals and desires; it makes us want to seek and find the truth and then make it part of our lives and then we want to share it with others.  Raspberry is a color for confident action for especially when those actions are meant to benefit others more than ourselves.

The Story...in brief

Raspberry's story is quite simple to sum up; she was bit of a snob and it got the better of her.  Now, it wasn't intentional, and as many people who relate to Raspberry, she had no clue this was how others say her. Raspberry often found herself sitting alone while others gathered together to chat and have fun.  Nobody wanted to approach her.  She then started to notice that when she would tell someone something that she noticed about them they never came back to talk to her again. She would tell people things that she felt where truths but what others might consider "painful truths".  She said to Mrs.Orange "I can't believe you dyed your hair that color!"  And she told the Cantaloupes "Your baby is too fat."  She didn't care how they really took the news, she felt someone needed to tell them so it would be her.

But one day she visited her friend Elderberry to find out if he could help her understand why people shy away from her.  This time it was Elderberry who had to share the harsh truth. He told her that others were intimidated by her and that she wasn't willing to be a "Berry among the Berries", that she pranced around town seemingly better than everyone else.  When Raspberry tried to deny this claiming everyone was just jealous of her, Elderberry turned his back on her saying he wouldn't help her because she wasn't willing to listen.  

In the past she had argued with Elderberry that she said the things she said because she wasn't a liar and to not tell the truth would be to lie, but now she saw something different in her "truths".  Raspberry broken down into tears realizing that her loneliness was her own doing.  She explained that she has high standards for herself but Elderberry asked why and for who. All Raspberry could do was throw her arms around him thanking him for his words.  As she left to head home, make-up running and red-faced from crying, everyone she passed were surprised because they were seeing the real Raspberry for the first time.  Mrs. Boisen stopped her to ask if she was alright.  Raspberry said yes and thanked her for her concern without noticing the threads hanging from Mrs. Boisen's dress. From that day forward Raspberry focused on the unique and special qualities of others rather than looking for their bruises and flaws.

The Meaning...

Righteous Raspberry is tough card because she is a card that forces us to look at ourselves and how we might be treating others a little too harshly.  She is ultimately a card that says "lighten up and live a little" but that is sometimes easier said than done. Sometime we have certain standards for ourselves that we just feel very strongly about and we want to hold others up to that same level of perfection.  But sometimes this can turn us into a perfectionist and we miss out on the things that make someone special because we're so busy trying to hold them back and make them "perfect like us". 

Righteous Raspberry, for me, also represents the idea of how we communicate with others. Sometimes we are just a bit too honest in our thoughts and feelings, even if they don't directly have to do with the individual we are sharing them with.  It might just be that we feel very passionately about a certain topic and we share our thoughts without thinking about how someone else might feel.  She is that person in a friendly debate among friends that feels the need to hammer her point of view into each person there and she isn't going to let up until they concede that she's right. 

In the end Righteous Raspberry is about being yourself but also letting others be themselves.

For Today...

Are there people in your life that you have been a little too harsh with?  Are you holding yourself up to impossible standards and making others around you a little intimidated by your energy you project?  The first thing to do is look at yourself.  It's time for a long hard look in the mirror; ask yourself what qualities you have that are less than perfect.  Do you attack others, even just in silently in your own mind, for others that have those same qualities?  

Now ask yourself if there are specific people in your life that you know you are too hard on.  Everyone likely has one person that they deliver "harsh truths" to on some sort of regular basis.  Think about why you do this...and if you maybe softened the blow and were more gentle in sharing some of your thoughts do you think it might be better received and you might be thanked for it?  Sometimes we do just need to share certain thoughts and feelings with someone that might be hard to hear, but the difference between them being upset or appreciative is all in how it's said.  

Take time today to consider your higher standards that you might have for people around you and find ways to lighten up and let people just be who they are.