by Andi B.

On Tuesday I was driving into downtown to pick my husband up from work and encountered something beautiful and rare. I saw a rainbow without reason. All the clouds outside were white and puffy, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining. There was no rain, no gray skys, so I was pretty surprised to see a pale rainbow, almost wrapping around the edge of one of the clouds happy cotton ball clouds. This crazy, stupid, wonderful rainbow started to take on metaphoric proportion as I thought about it more.
I can’t remember how many times I didn’t trust something wonderful or beautiful in my life that didn’t emerge from struggle and pain. I almost didn’t marry my husband because our relationship was too good, too easy; it wasn’t stressful or something that I had to dig deep for. Maybe we’re trained to believe that magical things are not to be trusted. When some people are struggling, it’s a statement of justification when things go well for others that they worked hard and had a difficult time to get there. But why can’t we just be happy no matter what for the good things?
In all honesty, the recession has had a unique effect on our household. When all of our friends were living the good life during the boom, we struggled. When the economy became difficult, we didn’t really have anything to lose; we just kept plugging away. Our situation even improved with stable jobs, and a move to a new and better location. I used to think that things were getting better because we deserved it for our struggles, but now I don’t feel that way. I like to think that we’re all living our lives, and sometimes, there’s a rainbow without reason.

Andi B.

Andi B.