Inspiration: Oxidation: The Color of Change

 
I passed a yellow pole the other day, and it was covered with rust. I took this close up shot so I could see all the colors. I was enchanted by the way the different levels of rust meld together to form new and different patterns. I was also surprised that blue and green and brown and maroon were intertwined all over the pole. A man walked by while I was taking the picture, and he had a strange look on his face as she watched me take the photo. It was as if he could not figure out what I was doing or why I was doing it. I was okay with that. 

According to the dictionary: rust is a flaky coating of iron oxide that forms on iron or steel as a result of oxidation. Oxidation is any chemical reaction that involved moving electrons. Specifically it means the substance that gives away electrons is oxidized.  So by giving away an electron the steel here turned different colors…it changed into something else. 

Isn’t it amazing that by giving something away the steel became something more. So people would see the metal as ruined, old, worn out and no longer worthy of use. By giving away that electron the metal is no longer suitable for it’s intended use. Yet for me, that electron made the steel amazing…TOTALLY new and different and interesting. 

There are times in life when we have to let something go in order to become something new. We have to give ‘it’ up to move forward. The strange thing is that only you know what ‘it’ is in your life. And if you choose not to give ‘it’ up, you may stay where you are for a long time…going no where, and never realizing that you are stuck. When you do have the courage to give ‘it’ up, that is when things in your world will change. 

So are you ready to change? Are you ready to move from what you think is your intended purpose to a different purpose? Are you willing to give ‘it’ up to move forward? It will be a challenge, it may take time, it may cause discomfort and frustration…in the long run it will be worth it. I do not know if steel can tell that during oxidation it is giving something up…yet the color of change is beautiful. Step up and let your life oxidize, the change will be worth it.