“No rain, no rainbows”… words of wisdom, for sure.
I first came across this saying on a postcard in Maui – the text was superimposed on a stunning shot of a rainbow soaring over one of their (few gazillion!) lush mountains and valleys. It made me stop, ponder, and appreciate.
This moment of awe and gratitude was echoed recently – but this time, with more profound impact.
It happened on the very first day of a ‘get-away’ week in Myrtle Beach for Lynsey, Steve, Martin & me following Lynsey’s six (hateful!) weeks of radiation. As it turned out, we caught the tail end of “Hurricane Anna” with rain battering the beach, waves crashing ferociously into each other, and the wind whipping palm tree leaves almost horizontally.
Around dinner time that day, things finally began to calm down and then all of a sudden Martin called out, “Hey, look – there’s a rainbow!”
There was indeed a rainbow – and as we all watched, it turned into the most spectacular and moving rainbow I have ever seen.
From the end where it dipped its toes into the ocean, the rainbow swooped high up into the clouds in a magnificent steep arc. As we stood admiring it, its colours seemed to intensify. I started naming the sequence of colours in my head as I looked on… red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet… but when I got to the end of the list, I realized that there was in fact, ANOTHER rainbow that began right after that one – almost as though it was attached to the first one. And then came another, and then a fourth one! Each one seemed to be ‘connected to’ or stacked on top of, but just slightly behind the other. It was as though the one furthest away was supporting the one immediately in front and above it, as was the next one and the next one.
I stood mesmerized.
There we were, the four of us… and there IT was, with its four separate but connected rainbows, on display just for us. The fact that each rainbow seemed to be supporting the next one, just added to the impact of this stunning visual. It was profoundly moving.
As we stood there, the rainbows slowly began to fade away… and then, within seconds, they were gone. The impact they had on me, however, has NOT faded in the least.
No rain, no rainbows.
Lynsey’s tumour has certainly provided a heavy helping of “rain” in her life and in the lives of all those who love her. Perhaps this ‘quadruple rainbow‘ was offered to us to remind us that the rainbows DO come.
I expect that scientists and atmospheric gurus would have a perfectly good, logical explanation for what we witnessed, but I prefer to think of it as the Universe’s way of getting our attention and reminding us that there are miracles all around us – we just have to be vigilant in our watchfulness, and be open and ready to receive them.
May we go positively forward from here, carrying in our hearts the beautiful visual of those four rainbows each supporting one another. With the challenge of Lynsey’s radiation treatments behind her, maybe, just maybe, we all have room for a few rainbows now.
lynsthefirecracker 