Rainbow Blessings

The list of things a rainbow might signify runs long and reads like feel-good-about-it alldime store psychobabble: acceptance, new beginnings, harmony, happiness, hope, inspiration, integration, love, luck, joy, transformation. Let’s not even get started with equity and inclusion for all!

Paul & I try to do fun and normal things these days, so we have lunch with dear friends, Polly & Rob, then take ourselves on a tour of a cute New Hampshire village. We walk through a hard rain on this somewhat dreary day and sit in a cafe watching — wide-eyed — as marble-sized hail bounces sprightly off the gravel. I take it all in: grateful to be alive, in this world, at this moment, and experiencing bits of the natural world.

Driving home, all of a sudden, the sky clears and sunshine pours through windshield; light bounces off the shiny wet pavement blinding me, as the rain continues. I think, the sun at this slant, at this hour, there must be a rainbow so I pull off on a side road and come to a grassy clearing. There quiet and shy I see the small arc in the eastern sky, the birth of a rainbow, delightful and welcome. As quick as can be, it expands across the whole sky, bold, and vibrant, with easeful intention to reach its far away goal.

The Judeo-Christian interpretation of the rainbow has to do with protection and God’s covenant with people — after our poor human behavior…