VIVA MAGENTA: Live, Breath, Be!

by Tammy Phillips
January 2, 2023

If anyone knows me well, they know that my favorite color is red, all shades, tones, and hues of red, particularly magenta. 

I awoke to a text on Sunday, December 4, 2022, from my dear sister in Christ whom I call Queen Fuchsia (She also has an affinity for the reds.): 

“Good morning, Queen Magenta!  I see that your color is the pantone color for 2023!”

I googled 2023 Pantone color of the year and it  was Viva Magenta…
( https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year/2023)

I responded:

“That is crazy!  I prayed for my 2023 word from the Lord on Wednesday, November 30, and I  believe you may have just delivered it.  Will ask God for sure!”

I prayed for my word because it  is my guide, my rutter, that helps me travel through the raging sea of the year. I did not want to force anything.  I sought the Lord for confirmation and  he gave it. 

Stop.  First of all, you might be questioning, “What is Pantone?”  Pantone provides a universal language of color.  The Pantone Color Institute™ provides customized color standards.  For example, Tennessee orange is always Tennessee Orange -PMS 151.

You may also be questioning how can a color be your word?  Well, this is something new to me.  I love color.  I love words.  It looks like the God of impossible is speaking through both, color and words.

Second…What is Viva Magenta? As a color…

“Pantone’s Color of the Year, Viva Magenta 18-1750, vibrates with vim and vigor. It is a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family and expressive of a new signal of strength. Viva Magenta is brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.

This year’s Color of the Year is powerful and empowering. It is a new animated red that REVELS IN PURE JOY, encouraging experimentation and self-expression without restraint, an electrifying, and a boundaryless shade that is manifesting as a stand-out statement. It is a color that is audacious, full of wit.”

Leatrice Eiseman
Executive Director, Pantone Color Institute

According to Pantone.com, the reds are power colors that celebrate life.  As a bright, crimson red, Viva Magenta balances boldness with a feeling of fun. It embodies an expression of fierce grace, inspiring us to show up with confidence and humanity. We can never fully understand what lies beneath the surface of the friends and strangers we meet, but we can always work to deepen our empathy. The Color of the Year 2023 speaks to our desire to take on new challenges and try the unconventional while meeting others with compassion.

Viva Magenta offers us the assurance and motivation we need to weather long-term disruptive events. Three years deep into a pandemic, facing war, an unstable economy, social unrest, and supply chain breakdowns, we need to heal. And still, we need to find the motivation to continue. Here, Viva Magenta cloaks us in both power and grace, and sends us out into the world with the verve we’ve yearned for.”

How does the name of a color, Viva Magenta,  translate to my 2023 word?

Viva in many languages mean a joyous shout of joy, a cheer to live or “long live.”  It is a cry of celebration or triumph.   I looked up “long live” in the Bible.   I found it in [1Ki 1:39-40 NIV, “Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” And all the people went up after him, playing pipes and rejoicing greatly, so that the ground shook with the sound. [1Ki 1:40 NIV]

“Long live” in the verse above is the Hebrew word, chayah, meaning alive, revive, be quickened,  be restored to life or health, simply, live!  According to the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, The original idea of this word is breathing. The same original meaning is found in the Greek word, ζάω  or zao, which means to breathe, live and be strong,  to recover life, to be restored to life;  to enjoy real life, to live life most happily. 

Jesus said  in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have [it] more abundantly.”   

We need to live the life that Jesus came  and died for. 
We need to enjoy life.
We need to live out loud and in color.
VIVA MAGENTA!
Live! Breathe! Be!

How do we “VIVA MAGENTA?”
How do we joyously celebrate life?
How do we live optimistically?
How do we live  brave and fearless?
How do we REVEL IN PURE JOY?
How to we extend fierce grace?
How do we Live? Breathe? Be?
How do we “VIVA MAGENTA?”

We do not  live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Luke 4:4)

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. (1John  2:6)

In him we live and move and have our be!  (Acts 17:28)

We rejoice in the Lord  always. (Philippians 4:4)

We consider it all joy when various  trials come. (James 1:2)

It always, always, always comes back to…

We live…we walk…by faith, not by sight. (2Corinthians 5:7)

I enCOURAGE you to “ Viva Magenta!”  Live! Breathe! Be!  We should enjoy every second of our blessed lives.  You are blessed whether you realize it or not.

We are all on this journey and have to go through this thing called life.  Celebrate it  and live!  Walk it out breath by breath.  I intend to in my new shoes.    Viva Magenta! Just be in 2023!  Happiest New Year…all year!