rainbows

It’s dark outside, and wet. The rain taps against the living room window. It will be like this for the next six months or so. Winter – and fall, and spring – in the Pacific Northwest.

Yesterday was miserable, the skies near black and stormy. but on the drive home the thick layer of clouds split open behind me and there was suddenly light, golden and glowing, reflecting off the city’s glass skyline. It was so beautiful, the kind of of sky that made me pull the car over so that I could take a picture that didn’t begin to capture the magic of it. They never do.

On the same small side street I’d pull off onto, there’s a store that sells local stuff – soaps and pottery and artisanal dog treats. I crossed to it, jumping over puddles in my bright yellow flats. They are the worst possible shoes for almost-winter weather, my stubborn last grip on a summer that is now long gone.

It was just me and the woman who owns the tiny shop, who was subtly getting ready to close for the day. The door opened and a head poked through. “There’s a rainbow right over the store! You should take a photo!” she said. They seemed to know each other; a neighbour, maybe.

So we went outside, the two of us, eyes already toward the sky.

It was beautiful. A full, vivid rainbow right above us, a second one faint behind it. The last fall leaves, still brilliant, still clinging to their branches, seemed lit from within.

It was a busy little corner, people on the way home from work or picking up kids, out for walks to shake off the day. Around us, several people stopped, looked up.

And I felt lucky to be there, in the company of total strangers, in total awe, witnessing something so magical. And I thought, maybe the world would be a nicer place if we all stopped to notice the beauty around us, if we all let ourselves be connected by it. If it didn’t have to go out of its way to get us to look up and take notice.

With love. xo