The Yellow Door Life

This is the first picture I ever saw of my house. Just as so many others have seen the first picture of their house while searching on Zillow. No one thinks about the significance that moment will have, some don’t even realize they are looking at their house (especially in such a volatile market), but I did.

I knew from the second I opened the listing and saw the yellow door.

I remember where I was sitting and exactly how I felt. 

This is the one.

I sent the listing to my realtor and asked him to schedule a showing. When he arrived at the house, and started showing me around (via FaceTime of course), I could feel peace there. I could feel my purpose coming to being. Then, the phone shifted to the front porch and that yellow door and I didn’t just see the yellow with my eyes, I saw it with my heart. I felt the yellow. 

Emily, what do you mean you felt the yellow? Girl-you crazy. 

No, no let me explain.

As things began to shift in my life in the spring of 2022, I felt the need to further the work I had been doing in counseling and began to work with a wellness coach. This work dove deeper into my health at several levels including living into the life I have envisioned for myself. Many people struggle with this idea. Just because you want something, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. What I have learned so far though, is that it usually works out better than we have planned, if you listen, pray, and make choices out of truth, rather than fear. 

In one of my first sessions with Michele, she asked me to close my eyes (if you can’t get behind closing your eyes and being vulnerable-working with any kind of counselor/coach may be rough for you, because believe me, you do it a lot) and envision the life I have always wanted. 

Now, being from a generation that was told strictly to never share what they wished for when they blew the candles out on their birthday cake, I’m not going to tell you what that vision is, yet, but what I can tell you is it’s a big, beautiful dream and it definitely involves running through a field singing The Sound of Music (I’ve linked it here for any of you young folks who sadly don’t know what I’m talking about). 

As I sat at my desk with my eyes closed, creating this life in my head, Michele asked me to feel the vision in my body, take notice of any tingling or warmth. I felt a warmth in my chest, my heart, and as it would come to be known after this exercise, my compass. 

Then, she asked me to tell her if I saw a color.

I saw yellow. I felt yellow. 

This was nearly 3 months before that morning on Zillow. 

The Significance of Colors 

We were blessed to have been given a world in color. So many colors that we can’t even keep track of them all, because you can always make new ones. It’s such an extraordinary thing to see in color and I think we often take advantage of it. 

We are so busy just surviving that we forget how remarkable it is to stare at blue skies, and red roses, and to see the significance of yellow doors.   

In nature, colors are used to attract, warn, embody, and protect, so how is it we as humans can’t see the significance that color plays in our daily life? 

My History with the Color Yellow

“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it, and over it.”

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I don’t believe in coincidences. What some may refer to as one, I believe is a sign. A direct message from our Creator to help us on our way. You can either agree, or disagree, makes no difference to me, but those signs are what brought me here. 

Since I was a little kid, one of my favorite colors has been yellow, which is funny, because it’s not really in my wheelhouse of colors to wear. 

I’ve been obsessed with Beauty and the Beast since it came out, for many, many reasons, but of course, because Belle wears a yellow dress. 

From gel pens to jewelry, I gravitated towards the color yellow.

Fast forward to January of 2019. I arrived in Lubbock, TX to visit my Dad. 

He had spent the last month in a nursing facility, after falling while trying to get items out of his storage unit the week of Thanksgiving. 

I knew the trip to Lubbock was going to be stressful. It’s no secret my Dad and I didn’t always get along, and seeing how his health had steadily declined over the last decade had me on edge, always wondering if the next call I received would be news I wasn’t ready to hear. 

My Mom and I checked into our hotel and got ready to go see Dad. I knew we needed to bring him something to cheer him up, so we went to a flower shop. 

When I walked in, my gaze immediately fell on a small, yellow cup with a smiley face on it, filled with daisies and other yellow flowers. I bought the arrangement and we made the drive to the facility. 

I don’t know how many of you have spent time in a nursing home, skilled nursing facility, or otherwise, but the pain and depression is palpable. 

If the sterileness of it all wasn’t bad enough, most of the people looked lost, they looked like they had already given up.

I was glad to bring some life and light into Dad’s room with my little smiley face cup.

When I got that inevitable call just a few weeks later, my mind went to the yellow cup. I became obsessed and just prayed it would be there when I went to bring my Dad home. 

The Yellow Door Life 

Now, I learned this many moons later, that having a yellow front door is a selling tactic recommended by realtors. Yellow evokes feelings of warmth and happiness, so generally, buyers are more enticed to buy the home. Good vibes and all that.  

Well, you got me. 

I’m one of those people that is able to make huge financial and life changing choices based on the color of a front door. But hey, it’s all working out, so clearly there is something to be said about trusting your gut. 

Although the yellow door is still a relatively new character in my story, it has become the focal point for my mission. 

What is your mission Emily? 

Great question. 

I have been through heck and back over the last few years and I believe the yellow door was the light at the end of the tunnel, but the catch is, it’s not the end. 

It’s just a door y’all.

And doors are meant to be opened, decorated, kissed in front of, admired, but ultimately, walked through. 

What comes next is on the other side of the yellow door, The Yellow Door Life, which you keen observers will notice, is the title of this series, as well as the name of my website. 

I am living The Yellow Door Life and the stories that are to follow have always been within me, they just needed a home, and now they have found one. They are safely stowed behind the yellow door.