I agree with Kermit. It wasn’t easy “bein’ green,” different, quiet, ignored, “the other,” invisible, passed by, passed over, and slighted.

It wasn’t easy being seen as only one color when I knew deep inside my soul that there was so much more to me than only green.

I remember the first time I heard Kermit the Frog sing “Bein’ Green.” I listened to the lyrics and sobbed.

Just like Kermit, it seemed as if I “blended in with so many ordinary things and felt ordinary.”

I wasn’t taking up my full space in the world. Instead, I was camouflaging my personality, spirit, and talents and only projected qualities that others expected from me.

“Bein’ Green” by Joseph G. Raposo

“It’s not that easy bein’ green

Having to spend each day

The color of the leaves

When I think it could be nicer

Bein’ red or yellow or gold

Or something much more colorful like that

It’s not that easy bein’ green

It seems you blend in

With so many other ordinary things

And people tend to pass you over

‘Cause you’re not standing out

Like flashy sparkles in the water

Or stars in the sky

Bigotry, Hatred, and Religious Prejudice

In contrast, there were times in my life when it felt safer to be green and blend in with the crowd like Kermit. Invisibility was difficult, but it was much more difficult to stand out as a young Jewish girl in a non-Jewish neighborhood. Religious prejudice was rampant, and when my peers found out I was Jewish, the name-calling, teasing, and physical abuse continued for years.

The kids in the neighborhood and their families seemed to look at me with blind hatred and paint my existence as colorless. I would have given anything to blend in, assimilate, and remain unnoticed during those painful times.

Reflections on Religious Bias by an Eight-Year-Old

Deep inside, I couldn’t understand any of this bigoted nonsense. Even when I was eight, I was ecumenical in my beliefs and wondered why people separated themselves and thought only one way of believing and being was the “right” way.

Everyone’s heart beats in the same way, experiences similar feelings, bleeds, laughs, and cries in the same way, and everyone longs for love and visibility.

What’s the problem?

Why can’t we be curious about our differences and realize that we are more the same than we are different? Why can’t we find common ground?

I didn’t understand irrational biases when I was young, and I still don’t understand them.

Unlike the line in the song that says, “It seems you blend in with so many ordinary things,” I was suddenly being punished for not blending in and for not being like everyone else. I would have given anything to be any color other than colorless, irrationally unaccepted, and insensitively discarded. 

Every Moment is an Opportunity for Rebirth

In my younger years, I didn’t know that every moment was a new opportunity for rebirth. Lucky for me, rebirth is exactly what happened to me. When the music teacher entered my fourth-grade class and sang with us, something came alive in my soul.

My spirit glowed with every color of the rainbow and beyond.

Singing, cello, music, acting, performing, recording, teaching, and writing became paths toward visibility, and I don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t entered my life. The creative arts saved my life and allowed me to safely express every color I needed to communicate to myself and to the world. I am now living out loud – empowered, colorful, proud, creative, accepted, making a difference in the world, visible, inspired, loving, hopeful, happy, and, as the song says, “twinkling like the stars.”

Above all, I turned my experiences with prejudice into a career that advocates loving consciousness and encourages all of us to write a new and positive story for our one humanity. A story of unity, kindness, compassion, inclusion, forgiveness, empathy, cooperation, manners, altruism, hope, peace, and love. A story that shifts from fear to love.

Why I Created an Island of Peace, Acceptance, Hope, and Love on Facebook

What I find uncanny is that we can experience more than one truth, emotion and personality almost at the same time. I am quiet, introspective, and shy, and in parallel, I have the ability to be a leader and speak or perform in front of large audiences. Go figure.

We are all walking and breathing dichotomies, and I am no exception.

I formed the Facebook community, “Shift of Heart,” because I knew that I couldn’t be the only one in the world that felt alone in my longing to create inner peace and peace in our world. I also knew that I couldn’t be the only one who felt delightfully unique and blessed with innate gifts that could support and inspire new and old friends.

I desired a life that was filled with more than surface chit-chat. I yearned to go beneath the surface and talk about topics that matter. It is my passion to bring open-minded and openhearted people on a journey of self-discovery and ask thought-provoking questions that raise self-esteem, consciousness, mindfulness, and the vibration of love, peace, and hope.

I yearn to be a seed planter and a motivational catalyst who inspires new dreams, and as an intuitive life coach, I love to offer healing and self-care techniques to make the challenges of life easier.

It is my joy to be my community’s guide, intuitive life coach, earth mother, light-worker, healer, educator, “peace begins with me” advocate, eternal optimist, wisdom whisperer, “Dear Abby,” and spiritual teacher.

When we heal others, we heal ourselves, and when we heal ourselves, the entire world sings with colorful vibrations of love.

You are welcome to join “Shift of Heart.” We’d love to have you.

Self-Esteem Tools for Transformation, Healing, and Inner Peace

If you’ve been wounded in any way during your journey in life, “change your words to change your life.” Create sentences with power words and visualize yourself already living them. Here are my favorite positive affirmations that work for me, and I hope these power words inspire you, too.

>> I take up my full space in the world.

>> I matter.

>> I define who I am.

>> I am enough.

>> I have the power to change my life.

>> I am my own champion.

>> I stand up for myself.

Focus on one power sentence and imagine that the meaning of this affirmation is one heartbeat in your life right now. It’s who you are. Let’s take “I am my own champion” as your positive affirmation for now.

If you were your own champion, how would it make you feel to validate your greatness and your right to be in this world spreading all your magnificent colors?

If you were your own champion, would you communicate differently?

How would you project yourself to those you know and to those you don’t know?

Is your posture straight or hunched over?

What colors emanate from your spirited personality?

How about your tone of voice?

Do you speak from your power belly or from higher up on the chakra ladder?

Champions are grounded, confident, and filled with self-belief, non-egocentric self-love, trust, faith, humor, lightness, and depth. Champions encourage others to be champions, too.

Sound, look, think, feel, talk, act and react like a champion in your life. If you visualize a better picture of yourself in your imagination, you will feel it in your body, mind, and spirit, too.

Instead of saying to yourself, “I can’t do anything right. I’m a loser. I’m not a success, and I’ll never be a success,” change your tune to “I am capable of anything I put my mind to, I stand up for myself, I share my talents with others, I release my fears, and I step into my life with courage, trust, and faith.”

Shift patterns that don’t serve you, add positive action steps into your life and change what you are saying and thinking about yourself.

The Transformational Truth in the Last Two Verses of “Bein’ Green.”

There’s hope at the end of the “Bein’ Green” song. There are life lessons, too.

The last two verses share lessons about self-acceptance, self-love, self-compassion, self-empowerment, and self-empathy.

The last two verses offer lessons that encourage us to explore new definitions of who we are.

The last two verses encourage us to accept the purity and beauty of our essence.

The last two verses beautifully convey that we are enough, no matter what color.

The last two verses also convey that we are bold and courageous every time we choose to transcend our pain and inner child wounds, and we are bold and courageous every time we choose to decorate ourselves and the world with multiple colors that symbolize all we have been, all we are now, and all we will be in the future.

The Inner Peace I Now Feel from “Bein’ Green”

In retrospect, “Bein’ Green” wasn’t a terrible thing. Because I was a living breathing metaphor of green and invisible, I could quietly observe my surroundings, nature, and people more deeply.

Because I was green, I was readily available to listen to others with an open heart. I didn’t hurt people with my words or judgments, and I was steady, grounded, and a vital part of the entire palate of colors.

Even now, I enjoy being green, and sometimes that is all I want to be.

I want to keep my life simple. Breathe my breath, look up at the stars, marvel at nature’s miracles, and blend into the world without much commotion.

I want to be a listening heart blessing the world with peace, love, and hope. I welcome green. It’s authentic, genuine, and real.

There may be other colors waiting in the wings for me to express themselves at any moment, but sometimes it feels good just to keep my life simple. It feels relaxing not getting too much attention or living up to anyone’s expectations.

Green is me in this moment. I accept it. I am proud of it. I need this color to feel grounded, peaceful and at ease.

Is it Time to Step into all our Glorious Colors—including green?

I had always known in my heart that there was so much more to me than one dimension. I was just waiting for the right time to burst into the world with bright, creative, named, and unnamed colorful magnificence.

As peaceful and low-key as it feels to be Kermit’s kind of green, it also feels good to step into the full spectrum of colors to make a difference in the world.

As the song says, “Like flashy sparkles in the water or stars in the sky.”

Stand out, stand up, speak up, sing out, make a splash, make a joyful noise, help others, be kind, be a thought leader, a wisdom whisperer, and a peacemaker.

There’s that dichotomy again, and here are the last two verses of Kermit the Frog’s inner turmoil combined with his renewed feeling of self-acceptance, self-love, and inner peace.

“Bein’ Green” continued

But green’s the color of spring

And green can be cool and friendly like

And green can be big like an ocean

Or important like a mountain or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be

It could make you wonder why

But why wonder, why wonder?

I am green and it’ll do fine

It’s beautiful and I think it’s what I wanna be.

“It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green” YouTube Video: