Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Can You Sing with all the Colors of the Wind?

 

My daughter changed her brown hair to blond, and then yesterday I noticed her FACEBOOK photo changed too…. Chelsea is a blond Pocahantas.

 

 Seeing the image of Pocahantas a flood of memoires came to surface stirring my day in favorable thoughts about Chelsea as a little girl…. mind you my thoughts of her are always favorable, but yesterday my little girl was Pocahantas, not the young lady faraway.

My memories included:

When she dressed like Pocahantas for weeks on end,

When she played the CD of Colors of the Wind so often that I forgot that there were other songs to listen to,

One day we went to a friend's house and their teen age daughter was also in love with Pocahantas, and was dressed like her. The young girl had a natural brown complexion. Chelsea was in awe of her… Pocahantas was alive!

 

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know …

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind.

 

I miss you Pocahantas… Though I can hear you sing with all the voices of the mountain and the melody is soothing to my missing heart.

 

(My friend Jani explained why Facebook Photos are Cartoons:

Change your profile pic to a cartoon from your childhood, and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday (Dec. 6th), there should be no human faces on Facebook but a stash of memories. This is to help raise awareness for eliminating violence against children.)

Who did you pretend to be as a child?

Comments

27 responses to “Can You Sing with all the Colors of the Wind?”

  1. Ardi

    What a sweet memory. My middle granddaughter was in love with Pocahunkus (what she called her) when she was 4. I made her a Pocahunkus costume for Halloween that year – complete with a feather in the headdress. That was her request. Thanks for sharing the song’s lyrics, too.

    Reply
  2. christine

    I would pretend I was a nun. I would make what was supposed to be a habit and I would pretend to have a classroom full of students. Chalkboard, pointer, and me. Silly.

    Reply
  3. kim

    Oh Lord. I was so uncreative that I had an imaginary friend called, “Other Kimi” I talked to her all the time much to the amusement of my entire family.
    Kim

    Reply
  4. Bev

    Laura from Little House on the Prairie!

    Reply
  5. Helene

    I was a horse always galloping through the tall grass. Neighing, whirling, twirling, always running with the wind in my hair.

    Reply
  6. Everton Terrace

    What a memory trigger this post was for me today Corey. My daughter is a bit older so for her it was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. She even cut off a little section of her shoulder length long hair to try and make her hair swoop like Ariel’s (found it stuffed down the side of the sofa). I can still sing “look at this stuff” on command. As much as I am enoyed seeing the woman she is growing into, how I wish I could pop back and visit that little girl with more than just memories – grateful for the memories though.

    Reply
  7. Brenda L from TN

    Well, I was Cinderella…always dressed as her on Halloween for about 3 yrs….from 4 to about 7…then I was a cowgirl until I was 10 and then I was a ballerina until 12 and then I stopped dressing up on Halloween. But I always saw myself when I was a little girl as Cinderella…a fairytale Princess…Thanks for the memories.

    Reply
  8. Jo

    To entertain ourselves, my sisters and I used to read encyclopedias. They were awfully out of date as I recall – probably from the early, early, early 20th century. They held such fascinating images of national dress from around the world. When we played dressing up, we would wrap ourselves in our mother’s fabrics, scarves and bracelets and pretend we were East Indian Maharani living in the Taj Mahal. We had so much fun!

    Reply
  9. pattyg

    Dreamed, lived, breathed ponies and horses all the time until I was 10-11?

    Reply
  10. Paulita

    I was Daniel Boone. Yes, a tomboy. My daughter took on the characters of her favorite movie. My husband would come home from work and have to immediately play the part of whatever prince she needed. He would read her face carefully to determine if she was the haughty Snow Queen or Belle, which would require him to dance a kickline.

    Reply
  11. Rhonda P.

    How fun, my sister and I always pretended to be the detective Stephanie Powers, I forget the tv show she was on. So much fun.

    Reply
  12. martina

    Encyclopedia Brown. “no job too small”. He was a character in a children’s book series who was an amateur detective. Dad took a great photo of me dressed in disguise at age seven. Somehow despite the disguise, Dad recognized me.

    Reply
  13. cathi

    I, too wanted to be Daniel Boone as I was a true tomboy. I changed my Facebook profile to The Jetsons, as I loved watching that cartoon when I was little! My daughter was very into Pocahantas too and had a costume one year for Halloween! Happy weekend to you from California! xxoo:)

    Reply
  14. Jenna

    How sweet, a cause that deserves to be highlighted. Nothing specific for me, anything with a cape. I liked capes!

    Reply
  15. Marilyn Miller

    When I saw that we were suppose to put our childhood fantasy character on FB I wasn’t sure who I would put there. I always fantasized I was a girl pilot. But don’t have a specific character in mind.
    What a lovely tribute to Chelsea and I love that she wanted to be Pocahantas. How fun to dream dreams and have fantasies.

    Reply
  16. carol

    someone I made up. I painted my red tricycle silver (my dad had sprayed some on his bumper and I wanted to be like him), slapped a red AllState insurance sticker on it(just like my dad’s) and pretended that my sidewalk was the Golden Gate Bridge (which was a direct link to Argentina) where I went to pick up a distraught friend now and then. My sweet Aunt thought I was nuts, my dear mother thought I had a wonderful imagination.

    Reply
  17. carol

    For Rhonda:
    Stephanie Powers was on Hart to Hart. Loved that show.

    Reply
  18. meredith

    El Kabong….It gave me a good excuse to bop my brother and sister over the head with a pillow, since I didn’t have a guitar.

    Reply
  19. Bramble

    “I look once more…just around the river bend, beyond the shore…” My son is in the same age group of your children and this was one of MY favorites to sit through!
    As I child…I wanted to be Hollie Hobbie! She lived in a nice place where everyone was sweet, and I liked her clothes!

    Reply
  20. Annie

    I wanted to be Shirley Temple because she could dance and sing…two talents I never had.

    Reply
  21. AmyKortuem

    No Way, Meridith! I used to play El KaBong, too! When I wasn’t pretending I was Johnny Cash’s friend and backup singer.

    Reply
  22. Sherry

    I was Penny on Sky King. Uncle Sky would take me on adventures in his small plane, solving mysteries. I used to be able to fly!
    Sherry

    Reply
  23. karen

    Pocahantas was one of my favorites as my children grew in the age of Disney’s newer animations. Her true history is astounding also. Thanks for the memories.. I do love that song.

    Reply
  24. Brenda

    It came and went, but I always wanted a shop! I was a teacher, an artist, and designer, and knew retail from front and back, and now I’ve grown up and have my own quaint little 1600 sq foot shop~ “Kindred Hearts Antiques and Gifts”…we would love it if you came by one day when Louisiana is on your path! Have a great day, Pretend Pocahontas!

    Reply
  25. Darlene

    Wonder Woman. I was her like 5 years in a row for Halloween when I was small.

    Reply
  26. Lyndee

    I was Rima of the Jungle! I was alone a lot as a kid and spent lots of time with my pets and outside. I loved to be Rima and have wild imaginary animals as my friends!

    Reply
  27. Pattaya Girls

    I was always Spiderman and my sister Wonderwoman.

    Reply

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