Editor’s Note: This is one of the zillions of rainbows on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i.
We all love rainbows. They are magical to us. When we see them, we stop whatever we are doing to appreciate their beauty, their magic.
For a while we lived on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. This lush island is known as the Garden Isle or Island. The daily rainfall makes it so. Often when we were driving around the island, we could see rainbows in every direction. How wonderful is that!
As much as we all love rainbows, we don’t always love rain or rainy, cloudy days. Yet without rain not only would we not have rainbows, we could not exist on Planet Earth. Without rain the land becomes parched, the rivers run dry, the aquifers are drained, our world becomes dusty, and our air becomes unbreathable.
We adults have grown up thinking we don’t love rain because we have forgotten how necessary it is. We have forgotten what it creates for us, such as critical water supplies, beautiful flowers, plants to eat, and mud puddles to play in!
As children we loved rain. What child doesn’t love to jump in mud puddles? Yes, most children all over the planet love rain, love mud puddles. We learned that while living in South Africa.
We happened to be in Durban, South Africa, the rainy day the Truth and Reconciliation Report was published in the newspaper. Tempers were re-ignited as people were reminded of the horrors of Apartheid. On that painful day we were walking along a city street wearing our American lapel pins so that we wouldn’t be mistaken as white South Africans.
Coming toward us was a young, well-dressed woman with her children. In an instant the children spotted a mud puddle and jumped right into it, no doubt splashing their mother. We laughed out loud at the universality of children and mud puddles. We also compared the joyfulness of the children with the ugliness of Apartheid. We humans . . .
And what do we learn from rain? It creates magical rainbows, it replenishes the earth so we can live on this planet, it inspires us to play.
Let’s change our minds and be grateful for rain. Although rain clouds and rainy days can be depressing, let’s remember that they are good news — and they will pass. The sun will shine soon enough.