I used my imagination to make the grass whatever color I wanted

The Colors of the Mind: The Freedom of Imagination

Hear now, O seeker of wisdom, the words of Whoopi Goldberg, spoken with the simplicity of a child and the insight of a sage: “I used my imagination to make the grass whatever color I wanted it to be.” In this tender remembrance lies a teaching for all ages — that imagination is the first and greatest power given to humankind. Before there were laws or kingdoms, before the brush touched the canvas or the chisel struck the stone, there was imagination, shaping reality not as it is, but as it could be. To make the grass any color is to claim that power — to see beyond the ordinary, to live in the infinite world of the possible.

When Whoopi spoke these words, she was recalling her childhood, a time when the world had not yet taught her to see only what was before her eyes. The child does not accept the dull sameness of things; she recreates the world in color and wonder. If the grass must be purple for joy, then purple it becomes. If the sky must be green to match her heart, then green it shall be. This is the essence of creative freedom — the refusal to be bound by the grayness of reality. It is the same fire that burns in every artist, inventor, and dreamer: the courage to imagine life anew.

The ancients knew this truth well. They said that the gods created the world twice — once in spirit, and once in form. So too must we. Before we act, we must imagine; before we build, we must dream. The imagination is not childish fancy — it is divine foresight. The one who can make the grass blue or gold in their mind has already discovered the power to shape the unseen into the seen. So it was with Leonardo da Vinci, who, centuries before flight, imagined wings of wood and cloth. The world told him men could not fly, yet he saw it — and in that seeing, he planted the seed that one day would become the airplane. The world of invention begins with the world of imagination.

But Goldberg’s words also speak to something deeper — the resilience of the human spirit. For she did not grow up surrounded by abundance or privilege. Her childhood was marked by struggle, and yet she found within herself a kingdom that no poverty could touch. By using her imagination, she claimed freedom where none seemed to exist. She could paint the grass with hope, even when the streets were gray. She could color her world with laughter and strength when others saw only hardship. Such is the alchemy of the imaginative soul — the power to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary by will alone.

There is a lesson here, as old as the stars: Reality is not fixed; it bends to the eye that dares to see differently. The pessimist sees dust; the dreamer sees fertile soil. The fearful see a wall; the visionary sees a door. When Goldberg says she changed the color of the grass, she is reminding us that perception is creation. The mind that imagines beauty in the barren will one day bring beauty forth. The mind that sees possibility in limitation will one day break it. The world changes first in the imagination, and only then in the hands.

Consider also the story of Vincent van Gogh, who looked upon the fields of France and saw not green but gold — wheat burning with sunlight, skies alive with swirling spirit. The world thought him mad, for they could not see the grass as he saw it. Yet his vision, born of imagination, would outlive them all. He, too, “made the grass whatever color he wanted it to be,” and in doing so, taught us that beauty lies not in conformity, but in the courage to see differently.

So, my listener, take this teaching into your heart: do not let the world paint your vision in dull tones. Use your imagination boldly. When life appears bleak, change its colors. When you are told that the sky must be gray, lift your brush and fill it with gold. When they say the grass is green, dare to make it violet, crimson, or blue — whatever your spirit needs it to be. For imagination is not an escape from reality; it is the power to reshape reality into something worthy of your soul.

Thus, as Whoopi Goldberg teaches, the world belongs not to those who see it as it is, but to those who imagine it anew. Paint your life in your own colors. Let your vision be vast, your creativity fearless, and your imagination free. For the world is a canvas, and you — you are the artist.