tonight I left work wishing it was really Friday. You know, the kind of Friday that is followed by a weekend, Saturday and Sunday as in two days off. I remember those. Late afternoon a number of customers recounted that it was pouring outside.

I recalled this Longfellow poem I encountered this week which ended:

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
— From The Rainy Day, Henry. W. Longfellow

I don’t think I knew where that line “Into each life some rain must fall” came from but I’m stashing it away for future trivia use.

Anyway, left work with a few fellow co-workers and there was the most spectacular sky show going on. Wonderfully polarized light and no rain at all. The mall’s big flag looked like it had several floodlights on it. Get in my car and pull out to start home and blam! a rainbow. Yup a full-arc rainbow. Actually, it was more than a 180 degree arc which I can’t say I’d ever seen before.

And then, OMG! A double rainbow. (you can google it if you have to) Really vivid and bigger than normal and wonderful and… well. Just wonderful.

Although there was a big peachy glow in the area of the sunset, there was no big fireworks in that part of the sky. I just looked and looked as best I could while driving and was thankful and glad it was ahead of me and to my left. Then the light shifted again and it was all over.

A double rainbow
alpenglow lights flat windows
today is redeemed.

I was reminded of a trip home in the last couple years after a particularly icky day. As I drove over I-90, it began to rain, the sun came out and the spray from each and every car, every mirror and tire had a little rainbow attached to it. I’d not seen anything like it before and haven’t since.

small wings of color
a blessing of rain meets sun
my evening’s commute.