I am driving.
The day has been long and frustrating.
My shirt is cold with sweat, still damp on my salty skin.
I was supposed to be in the shower right now.

My brother needed to be picked up from work.
"I can't do it, I'm cooking," my mother said.
So I went.

The road twisty and soaked with rain;
I was irritable--
Today had not been an enjoyable one.

As I was driving,
I looked out,
To my left.

I saw a rainbow.

A full arc,
One hundred eighty degrees of beauty.

Scientifically, there's nothing very special about a rainbow.
It's just water vapor, reflecting white light, refracting it into the color spectrum,
Which we see before us.

Nothing very special.
Seventh grade science, really.

But I found great comfort in the rainbow today.
Funny, the colors are all divided, yet united, one next to the other.

Maybe we should stand more like rainbows.

Funny, that first there must be a storm, some kind of adversity,
And out of it, something beautiful emerges.

Maybe we should react more like rainbows.

Maybe we should be rainbows.

Reflect the light in our lives,
All of it.
Don't just absorb and reflect back only some.
Reflect it all.

Rainbows are fleeting, though.
All beauty must fade,
Nothing gold can stay,
Or so I'm told.

Why be a rainbow?

Why not?

Why not be someone's source of solace in their time of stress?
Why not shine your glorious light unto them?
Who are you to be so selfish?

No.

I tell you--
Be a rainbow.