know thyself. 

"let the beauty of what you love be what you do." rumi
 

origin.

when i was a young girl, my artist grandfather would create stories for me. i would sit and listen to these tales, completely mesmerized, asking him to repeat them over and over again. 

my absolute favorite, was his story about the green elephants.

there were three of them and they were the children of a mama elephant who was yellow and a papa elephant who was blue. the children loved each other very much but one day they tired of being green and looking the same. they told their parents of this and were encouraged to express their individuality. the children were provided with paint and each one chose to decorate themselves differently.

one chose to paint himself purple with pink polka dots. one chose to paint herself blue like her papa but add yellow stripes like her mama. the third young one looked at the paints wondering what color truly felt like her. each brush that she picked up and readied for color didn’t feel right. so she just stared and stared at all of those colors leaving her brother and sister curious as to why she didn’t feel as inspired as they were to immediately change her color.

when the mama and papa came to see what their little ones had come up with, their two newly decorated children proudly strutted in front of their parents to show them their new colors. their littlest child stood watching quietly and when called upon as to why she remained green, she simply said, because i love being green and changing my color does not change me.

i change me. 

meaning.

the color green is the color of life, renewal, rebirth, growth & energy. it is the color of prosperity, abundance, balance and harmony – the great balancer of the heart and emotions, creating equilibrium between the head and the heart.

green renews and restores depleted energy, and as an emotionally positive color, it encourages us to love and nurture ourselves and others unconditionally. a combination of yellow and blue, green encompasses the mental clarity and optimism of yellow and the emotional calm of blue, inspiring hope and generosity of spirit not available from other colors.

the elephant is a symbol of wisdom, loyalty, strength and power. the elephant relies on conscious thought and the virtue of patience to meet its needs, which is a powerful gift as it enables the elephant to respond to situations in both a calm and confident manner.

elephants are able to go into a state of deep meditation and project themselves out of their bodies to seek within and out in order to acquire what exactly it is that they need. 

the magic of the elephant often associates itself with the shaman or intuitive. its power of remembrance reminds you what your driving force is all about, how powerful you truly are, and encourages your desire to pursue big dreams.

manifestation is another gift of the elephant – it considers both its dream and waking experiences and creates its reality based on this knowledge. the elephant makes no distinction between thought and the physical world which is the secret to its manifesting power.