My thinking is that lighter (than the roof) is better, ... and could do lighter in any number of natural shades (blue, grey, white, beige, green).

Whether to paint the siding and the brick is a matter of choice. Once you paint brick, you begin a maintenance issue that otherwise would not exist. If you don't hate the brick, it's easier to leave it alone.

Usually people paint brick because they hate the brick color or they want to unify the parts of the house. In your case, the current color of the wood seems to have been well chosen to blend with the bricks.

You might try posting on the Home Decorating forum for more comments.

Thanks to you both. I will look into lighter colors in the different shades mentioned and post this into the Home Decorating forum to see what they think as well.