Driving home from Brooklyn on the Belt Parkway, I was thankful that I witnessed the magical display by Mother Nature. The bright colors of the rainbow triumphed in stark contrast against the backdrop of gray, angry clouds; its full arc high up in the dark sky.
The setting sun's fierce rays behind me turned the drizzling rain into silver on my windshield and transformed the waters of the Narrows Strait shimmering like gold. There was a calmness in the air as if everyone is held spellbound by this beautiful thing in the sky.
And as I was coasting along the Belt, right where the "Fuhgeddaboudit" sign clued me that I was leaving Brooklyn for Queens, the majestic rainbow loomed right in the middle of the road, beyond the horizon. The colors were so distinct and the rainbow so amazingly near that it took my breath away. The cars slowed down and I could almost hear the collective "ahhs".
I vaguely remember the scientific explanation about the rain as the prism that creates the spectrum of colors. How the lights are refracted when the sun light hits the raindrop at an angle. ROYGBIV. In grade school, I hardly paid attention to the science behind this phenomenon.
As a child, I was more interested with the story of the pot of gold over the rainbow "where troubles melt like lemon drops and happy little bluebirds fly". It was our magical bahaghari from those innocent times where skies are blue,and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true, just over the rainbow.
And if you just look closely, there's a second rainbow! With blue on the outside and red moved to the inside. Double reflections, double pots of gold.
All I know is that I am grateful for the simple joys of a rainbow. As Maya Angelou wrote, “God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us- in the dreariest and most dreaded moments- can see a possibility of hope.”
King James Bible- "And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth".
Nov. 2013- A rainbow after Typhoon Yolanda
