Reflections on Rainbows and Reading
Dear Friends ~ Rainbows may seem a rather glib focus for a March newsletter, but stick with me. Overplayed as they are in early Spring, I have the compounding factor of rainbow-enthusiast housemates; children pushing me to the next level of septacolored semicircles, selecting every story rendering a rainbow. As my spiritual directors, my children implore me to read and reread favorite picture books ad nauseum; a Lectio Divina of a bedtime reading ritual.
In truth, and not at all disingenuously, I find a deep well in children’s literature. And rainbows, as both a physical phenomenon and illustrative image, offer seemingly endless edification, reaching back into our ancient stories and traditions around the globe and ahead into our scientific understanding of how we perceive our world on a narrow spectrum of visible light, with much to see beyond our means.
And so, drawing from the authors that write hope and aspiration into the lives of my children, alongside sonneteers and seekers of spirit and science whose words have made their way to me this waning winter, may we take a moment to hold these simple images and ideas with the same care and respect as the complex realities that often occupy our minds. May we all find something so trite and so radiant on which to ruminate, from which to luminate. ~Katie
Sneaking silent seconds amidst a flurry of family fun, Katie lives in company with the Great Lakes of North America where she writes with a sappy soft spot for seasonal similes, and an unalloyed love of alliteration.
To give happiness to others is a great happiness, too.
~ Marcus Pfister in THE RAINBOW FISH
Be someone’s cardinal glimpsed between leaf-shadows , flit of brightness so startling they have to blink to believe their eyes . Be the reason someone looks up from the cracked blankness of concrete and remembers the world is so much larger than what’s locked inside head and heart . Be the red swoop from tree to tree , the thread that stitches one uncertain moment to the next .
~ James Crews, “Cardinal”, on Instagram @James.Crews.Poet
We do not become fully human until we give ourselves to each other in love
~ Thomas Merton in LOVE AND LIVING
The Sun said to the Clouds, “Remember when we used to be together all the time and make rainbows?” The Clouds nodded. “I’m sorry for going clap bang boom at you,” said the Clouds. “I’m sorry for going sizzle sizzle sizzle at you,” said the Sun. “It’s better being friends!” said the Sun, and the Clouds agreed. They hugged. The Sun shined brightly and the Clouds misted happy rain. Ever so slowly, rainbows reappeared near and far, turning the world colorful once again.”
~ Monica Sweeney in HOW THE CRAYONS SAVED THE RAINBOW
Your days pass like rainbows, like a flash of lightning, like a star at dawn. Your life is short. How can you quarrel?”
~ Jack Kornfield in A LAMP IN THE DARKNESS: ILLUMINATING THE PATH THROUGH DIFFICULT TIMES
Two miles into
the sky, the snow
builds a mountain
unto itself.
Some drifts can be
thirty feet high.
Picture a house.
Then bury it.
Plows come from both
ends of the road,
foot by foot, month
by month. This year
they didn’t meet
in the middle
until mid-June.
Maybe I’m not
expressing this
well. Every year,
snow erases
the highest road.
We must start near
the bottom and
plow toward each
other again.
~ Camille T. Dungy, “In her mostly white town, an hour from Rocky Mountain National Park, a black poet considers centuries of protests against racialized violence”, as seen on CamilleDungy.Com
One little bee peeks out to see
a world of grey and snow.
She’s looking for bright colors.
And she needs you to help them grow
~ Christie Matheson in THE HIDDEN RAINBOW: A SPRINGTIME BOOK FOR KIDS
Food is rarely in short supply for Saskatoons but mobility is rare. Movement is a gift of the pollinators, but the energy needed to support the buzzing around is scarce. So the trees and the insects create a relationship of exchange that benefits both.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer in THE SERVICEBERRY: ABUNDANCE AND RECIPROCITY IN THE NATURAL WORLD
What do we call visible light? We call it color. But the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, children, mathematically, all of light is invisible.
~ Anthony Doerr in ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
There are mountains for climbing, journeys to take, dreams that are hopeful, decisions to make. Dark days may shake us, and worries creep in. With dragons to duel and battles to win. Thunder will rumble. Lightning will flash. The wind will start blowing, and tall waves will crash. But...there are footsteps to follow and words that are wise. There’s a map that will guide us when troubles arise.
~ Smriti Prasadam-Halls in RAIN BEFORE RAINBOWS
There is no amount of darkness that can extinguish the inner light. The important thing is not to spend our lives trying to control the environment around us. The task is to control the environment within us.
~Joan Chittister
Let’s paint a big rainbow to put on display. When people pass by it they’ll see it and say, “All rainstorms must end, and this rainstorm will, too. And they’ll feel a bit happier, all thanks to you.
~ Michelle Robinson in THE WORLD MADE A RAINBOW
I’ve had so many rainbows in my clouds
I had a lot of clouds
So I don’t ever feel
I have no help
I’ve had rainbows in my clouds
And the thing to do it seems to me
Is to prepare yourself
So that you can be a rainbow
In somebody else’s cloud
I too have known loneliness. I too have known what it is to feel misunderstood, rejected, and suddenly not at all beautiful. Oh, mother earth, your comfort is great, your arms never withhold. It has saved my life to know this. Your rivers flowing, your roses opening in the morning. Oh, motions of tenderness!
~ Mary Oliver, “Loneliness,” in BLUE HORSES: POEMS
“Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.”
~Khalil Gibran, extracted from one of Gibran's letters dated 8th November 1908
Thank you Katie for the recording and the selected readings. I appreciate the simplicity and authenticity of children's literature. I thank you for the opportunity to reflect on how the Divine Mother loves us all.
As a retired kindergarten and first grade teacher, I really appreciated the inclusion of children’s literature this time. Sometimes authors are able to reduce (or maybe just reveal) a profound message in the simplest of words. The message of The Rainbow Fish is universal. 🌈💕