Chasing Rainbows

My cousin posted this picture on her blog today and it absolutely took my breath away. Hope you don't mind that I stole it, Carrie! Chances are if you're reading my blog, then you are family and you have also read Carrie's blog so I don't need to tell you how amazing she is. Today, this picture was just what I needed. It is amazing how the littlest things are the things you need the most and they always appear at the most random times and places.

Since I have started my blog I have had a few comments about the title "Chasing Rainbows" and everyone seems to have their own theory about exactly what that means. Each person gets a little piece of the meaning but no one up to this point has exactly hit the nail on the head. This picture does.

I remember when I was little, probably about 6 or 7. Summer storms always terrified me. You know, the ones that roll in around 5 or 6 in the evening, wreak havoc for an hour or so and then roll out as quickly as they came? I loved going outside after a storm like that. I loved the smell in the air after a fresh rain moved out. I loved the way the humidity felt on my skin. I also knew that if I was lucky I would also see a rainbow.

On the rare occasion that I did see a rainbow I would stare at it, mesmerized by it. The beautiful colors, the way it draped across the sky. I always wondered where it began and where it ended. Was there really a pot of gold at the end? And that's when I would take off running down the street keeping my eyes on the sky, following the colors as far as I could. Within a few minutes it would just disappear, almost like it never really existed at all. And every time I would start walking back home, feeling a little sheepish and defeated.

Sometimes I feel the exact same way about life. I struggle between what's real and what's not. Between reality and fairytale. Even worse, I struggle to see the truth in the fairytale. I have always equated this to chasing rainbows when I was a child, believing in the end but not really having any proof that it actually exists. And then feeling a little sheepish and defeated when things don't quite work out. But now I see this picture, and it makes me smile. There it is.

I might never be as lucky as the person behind the camera that day. Chances are I will never actually see the end of a rainbow but now I know it's real, and that's enough for me. And it truly is spectacular...