I have always loved rainbows. We're talking since I was a child...and I'm in the middle of my fourth decade right now, so that's a long time.
As a kid, whenever the sky was dark and menacing following a rainstorm or a thunderstorm, but I caught a glimpse of a rainbow peeking through the gloominess, I'd run through the house shouting, "Come look...there's a rainbow...come see it!"
For some reason, perhaps because rainbows have a magical, awe-inspiring and mystical sense about them, I never thought they could be captured on film. As a young teen, I'd traveled on a frosty December day to Niagara Falls for a Jewish youth trip, and suddenly saw a rainbow over the Horseshoe Falls amidst the iciness of the scene. Still not believing the photo would develop to show the rainbow, I was thrilled when it did. That personal misconception of mine was gone.
But you have to admit that rainbows are beautiful with their spectrum of colors, a beautiful palette for the eyes. They are something to view and appreciate, and for that reason we are to say a special bracha/blessing upon viewing one.
It is rare for me to see a rainbow. An oil spill on pavement can sometimes provide the closest thing to a rainbow; look closely at a fine opal and you will see something of a rainbow in the stone; my diamond engagement ring reflects the light and creates color prisms on the ceiling...but still not a true rainbow.
I have recently discovered how to bring a rainbow into my everyday life. I go out to our backyard, turn on the garden hose and cast a mist spray over our vegetable garden or lawn. Voila! A rainbow.
And I am a happy little girl once more...
(that is not a picture of our backyard; however we also have a playhouse/storage in our yard)
