SKY FULL OF RAINBOWS

Wickaninnish Beach

When you are hanging onto 

the very last edge

of the edge

of the skinniest branch

and you feel your grasp slipping,

look up!

There's a sky full of rainbows,

row upon row of them,

shining up there,

to tell you that

all will be well

       all will be well

    all will be exceedingly well.

God's in His heaven

in the so clear air,

and all will be

 exceedingly well.

When the grayest of rain clouds

has just dumped its deluge 

upon you,

and you are mopping your eyes

and wringing out your hair,

look quickly!

You just might glimpse

the shine of angel wings

hovering there,

at the very edge of 

your peripheral vision,

to encourage you and I

that, on the other side 

of this trauma 

or sadness or challenge,

the radiant dawn 

of a brand new day

lies somewhere 

waiting,

just waiting

to break across your

morning sky.

When you have reached 

the very limit

of what you feel you can 

or should

withstand,

when the stress has 

weighed you down so far,

you're not sure exactly 

how you will

pull through,

go out to where the water 

meets

the mountain.

See the waterfall

tumble 

down its slopes

for you.

Watch the eagle

lift out of the mist

into the shrouded skies.

Take a deep breath

and believe,

just like the eagle,

your spirit, too,

your spirit 

once more

will rise.

I suspect many of us are feeling the duration of this long winter, right about now. I am reminded this morning of the poem above, which I wrote a handful of years back. One day I was walking Mr Dog in the fields at the end of the road, my thoughts distracted by some worries I was processing, when I suddenly remembered to look up - and saw not one, or two, but a whole handful of rainbows, all across the sky. Rainbows are always my sign that "all will be well" so I took them as a hopeful sign and, in fact, things did get much better pretty soon.

So I thought I would share them with you, to remind you, in the grayness and chill of late winter, that spring is readying itself under the ground and soon everything will look very much brighter. Take heart, fellow pilgrims!