July 26th, 2018

 I'm sure this is the palest rainbow ever, but there it is and it still counts!  Tim and I tried to go for our evening walk yesterday and we weren't even a half mile out before it started raining.  The rain was a surprise because the sun was shining.  Oh there were a few light grey clouds dotting the sky but since all week long we've been threatened by Dark grey, nearly black clouds, wind, thunder rumbles and flashes of lightening that produced nary a single drop of rain, we were not concerned about the remote possibility of being rained on.

Which shows how little we know, clearly.   It wasn't really a hard rain but it was steady and, as always, I'm concerned about getting my "circuits" wet, we turned around and went back home.  We were nearly there when we came across a neighbor walking her dog also returning home.  We stopped and chatted under the relative protection of a tree for a bit and then she continued toward her house.  By this time, the rain was a very light sprinkle. Tim and I debated, should we revisit the idea of the walk or go home.  Tim had an alternate suggestion which was that instead we drive into town and get gelato.  Because I'm not an idiot, I whole heartedly agreed.  So we continued the short walk back home.  As we started up the driveway, I looked up over the house for some reason and saw this rainbow blooming (the photo above). Bliss!

Like every 5 year old girl I've ever met, I just adore rainbows.

Not to the point where I have them emblazoned on my tee-shirts or wear small replicas dangling from my ears nor do I have mural of rainbows painted on my walls. No, nothing like that.  But whenever I see a rainbow, my heart lifts just a little bit.  A rainbow sighting makes me stop for a minute in a way that a pretty flower, no matter how much I  may admire it, does not.  If I am walking along and spy a lovely blossom (unless I'm taking a photo of it of course), I make the observation that it is indeed pretty as I'm continuing to walk. I never break stride.  But a rainbow will bring me to a complete halt.  Even if I say nothing at all, a smile will break out on my face, I will feel that little rising of happiness within me and a sense that everything will be okay.

Not sure why it is so, but it is.   

It can be any sort of rainbow, a vibrant one, a pale one or anything in between.  A whole rainbow is extraordinary but I am equally captivated by a partial one, a double one or even one of the round ones that aren't technically rainbows but  "sun halo's".  Still close enough for me.  I'm equally  fine with natural mother nature created rainbows or the ones that are artificially induced from prisms handing in the window that splash on the walls

We have a window film on the big old window that sits in our front door.  It's clear with a design in it that allows light to pass through but also gives us privacy.  Unbeknownst to Tim when he chose that particular window film, in late afternoon, just when I'm about to start dinner, the light filters through those designs and casts prism generated rainbows all over our front hall.  I smile every day when I'm preparing our evening meal.  In the family room I have a little dish of glass flotsam that sits in a window sill.   Early in the day rainbows wink and tickle throughout that room.  In the guest bathroom is a partial wall of glass block.  It's an outer wall.  My guess is that at one time it was a door to outside and instead of enclosing it as a solid wall, they chose glass block.  It may have just been a design choice but it allows loads of light in a tiny bathroom and due to the nature of glass block, tiny rainbows dance around that space at mid day.

Rainbows are marvels of nature and light and marvelous to me. And yes I fully comprehend  scientifically how and why they happen.  But I don't  care.  For me rainbows are and always will be magical.

The world can be a scary place and life is a serious undertaking.  I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing to find whimsy and delight and yes, "magic" in  an otherwise solemn and resolute world.  In fact, I think Magic is absolutely required.