coloring outside (inside?) the lines

ok so today i was able to squeeze in just a little coop preschool and our topic was "fire safety" complete with "stop, drop and roll", learning how to call 9-1-1 and doing a smoke detector fire drill...here is the page of a firefighter that sea colored...i love the colors she chose...but the most noteworthy part of this particular art is how much she stayed inside the lines and my emotional reaction to that...

i remember trying so hard to color inside the lines and not being very good at it (or at least as good at is as older kids or my artistic friend cara) so eventually i embraced my dramatic and bold coloring outside of the lines and made it part of my identity to do things differently, my own way and be proud of who i was...

this topic could get much deeper and more personal than i originally intended...anyway, there is a lot of symbolism here about life, how i view it, how i view myself, my place in it, etc...so i'm trying to be careful not to project all this on to sea. i should point out that i was focusing on how fun the coloring was and liking that she chose her favorite color orange, etc. when commenting on the picture to her so i'm not sure where all these "issues" are coming from for me...

part of me got excited that she was trying to color inside the lines without me suggesting she should and part of me was worried she was going to feel like she should do that or that would make me happier and then part of me wanted her to be a rebel and WANT to color outside the lines BECAUSE she was supposed to stay inside of them...see all the symbolism of life and the way you live (or lead/model as a parent)...

so here is a picture of her from a week ago creating a beetle craft...i thought it was really cute and creative of her that she wanted to put feet on her bug and then made wings (on top of the cut out wings) out of feathers and then on top of that wanted eyebrows made out of sequins ...
this post is not nearly as interesting to me as it was when i first saw sea trying to color inside the lines...not sure where i was going...i've noticed i have so much on my plate these days that i easily lose my train of thought and something that seemed profound or important is out of reach or uninteresting to me moments later...that makes blogging hard on me and perhaps even harder on you the reader...so maybe i can get some comments on your experiences with coloring inside (or outside) of the lines...i know most of my blogging friends are WAY out of the lines and happy about it...there i go making assumptions again...this is why i would be a bad therapist because i try to relate and imagine where people are coming from...jump right in before i allow them to get in touch with their own ideas and express themselves from their place. i'll try to be less self-absorbed but really blogging itself is very much that way so i guess i just have to go with it and invite you readers to help me regain my thoughts or follow yours for a change...