About ten years ago, coloring books for adults jammed shelves in bookstores, supermarkets, craft and gift shops. Crayon sets and elaborate boxes of colored pencils were available too. The fad ended after several years, though not in my house. The rebirth of coloring books was just what I needed at the time.

As a kid I’d loved to color. I’d stretch out on our scratchy living room rug, crayons spread all around, a coloring book inches from my eyes. No surprise to anyone who knows me that I was a stay-between-the-lines child.

Even though those days are long gone, I do have a collection of coloring books in a box  beside my desk and more crayons and colored pencils than Carter had liver pills.

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Several years ago, as I struggled  t0 cope with husband Peter’s worsening dementia, someone suggested that mindfulness might help me. I’d already explored the concept on-line. I’d even subscribed to Calm, a mindfulness app that features meditation practices, calming sounds, ambient music and sleep stories. Even though Calm is user-friendly it was more than my techno-deficient self could deal with at the time.

I simply could not still my brain enough to…well…to be mindful.

Then I heard about a six-week course in the Lifetime Learning program on campus— “Learn to be  happy! Practice the science of happiness.”  Just. The. Thing. Dr. Vicky Dierckx, the  sparkly-eyed happy, positive, enthusiastic instructor was perfect.

The experience with Vicky was so helpful our group asked her to  teach a “graduate” class in happiness. She couldn’t do that, but she does send us weekly “Happy Monday” emails. Last Monday’s message began, “I was planning [to write] about mindful coloring. I wanted to tell you how carefully paying attention to a complex pattern, such as a mandala, while using different colors to fill-in…is an easy way to practice mindfulness and has many beneficial effects.”  But she came across an article titled, “When did coloring books become mindful?”  She realized quickly she couldn’t actually say, “Coloring books are mindful,” but she did write, “…If you like coloring, as I do, mindful coloring will bring you joy and can get you into a flow state.” Flow, she explained, is that feeling of such complete absorption in what you’re doing that you forget about yourself.

That afternoon when I Face Timed with daughter Carolynn I mentioned the Happy Monday message. “Yes! That’s what happens to me when I paint,” she said. “Flow, eh?”  I forwarded Vicky’s message to her for reference. She replied quickly and said I should  write about coloring  in my next blog post.

And so I have.