Color

I sat by the window on a flight from Scotland to the US. The sun was rising. The sky bled pinks and reds into a pool of purple. A light fog hung on the horizon, and I could faintly detect a rainbow. I took a photo, but the rainbow wasn’t visible.

I had recently learned that the rainbows we see in the sky are complete circles. From the ground, I can only see part of an arc. But a complete rainbow (raincircle?) can be fully visible from an airplane. I really wanted to get a picture of a whole one. Since hearing this fun fact, I’ve been on a mission. The downside of learning this fun fact was realizing I would never find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Most people have seen them. Those who haven’t are aware of their existence. Yet, rainbows don’t really exist. You can’t touch them. They probably have no taste or feel. You can see them, but only from a certain place, at a certain time, with very particular circumstances.

My emotions are a lot like rainbows. They are real. Very real. I can see them. Other people can see them. They impact me. But they are also conditional. They only exist from a certain place, at a certain time, with a very particular set of circumstances. From some angles, they are small. Sometimes they are big and complete. However, they can always dissipate just as easily as they showed up. What might seem like one thing from one angle can look very different when I zoom out.

How might these feelings look from a different angle? Should this emotion evaporate as quickly as it arrived? Can I accept that my feelings can simultaneously be very immediate and real, but might disappear with a small shift?

Be curious, be kind, be whole, do good things.