My feet are bare and cold as they cross the threshold to the porch where I often go after my son is asleep and there is nothing left of the day to give. As I open the door a cool yet gentle breeze comes across my face with a tease of Spring in the air. I stare up into the sky looking for something to gaze upon. But tonight, the stars are not shining. There is a haze over the moon that moves like fog. As I stare and ponder I think I spot a shooting star as light seems to twinkle and move. A faint drop of rain touches my cheek and I step under the cover of my porch prepared for a passing storm. But time goes by and the haze begins to dissipate.
A glow of purple seems to appear in place of the night sky and I slowly move forward out of the cover once again in curious delight. Forgetting my bare feet, I walk further where now I am almost to the sidewalk staring up at the sky not taking my eyes off of what I’m about to see. And as if it was a summer day after the rain, in all its glory, a rainbow emerges glowing from the light of the moon.
Still with neck stretched out and eyes wide open, I stare now in complete wonderment not believing in what I am seeing. Every color of the spectrum is above me now on a canvas of soft grey, the night sky, illuminated by the brightness of the moon. I whisper the lyrics of “Comfortably Numb” to myself taking in the moment not able to move. A feeling of enlightenment and peace has overcome me and I am still.
Suddenly in this moment, I feel the cold cement on my feet once again and in an instant of swift moving clouds, the rainbow moon is gone. Darkness fills the sky once again in a haze and I am saddened that I could not somehow be quick enough to share this experience with my son who lays asleep just a few feet inside. But then I remember, a story he was telling me not so long ago of a “rainbow moon” and the dark sky that it filled. Trying to appease him, I asked, “and how would a rainbow come about in the night?” and he said to me “it really is a logical explanation. it had been raining.”
So there in the night sky lives a rainbow and on each rainy day it appears. But if you wish to see it, you must believe in the imagination of a child. Otherwise, you will just be left standing in your bare feet thinking you see “a distant ship’s smoke on the horizon”.
Dishes in the Sink 