It Looks Idyllic in the Pictures
Possibility came to visit me
In an early morning dream.
She was cloaked in all potential
And veiled in mystery.
I almost didn’t answer
When she roused me from the deep,
Urged me to pick up the pen
‘Stead of going back to sleep.
Her message was quite simple,
And I know it to be true.
So I quickly jotted down these words
To share them here with you.
While “anything is possible”
Is said time and time again,
The trick to finding rainbows is
Remembering to look for them.
This rainbow was so extraordinary, it’s hard to believe I almost missed it.
It’s almost impossible to fathom that when my five-year-old daughter shouted from the way back of the car “Look—a rainbow!” my response was, “I’m not looking for rainbows! I’m trying to get home!”
But that’s the moment I was in. I was stuck in the tension of a stormy day, a trip to the movies that exacerbated the problem it was supposed to solve (you know, the what-do-you-do-with-four-overtired-but-restless-children-on-a-rainy-day-on-vacation-in-the- mountains problem), and the stress of driving an unfamiliar van on a mountain road in a thunderstorm.
My daughter and her oldest cousin were in the third row arguing loudly about which song to listen to on the iPod. My younger niece was sitting directly behind me, kicking my back while trying to open the car door. I had my left arm extended behind me to hold the door closed. My sister, Melanie, was working to appease the girls in the back and my tween-age son was moaning at everyone to stop making noise.
For some reason, my daughter’s comment about the rainbow sent me over the edge.
It was Melanie who brought me back around as she whispered, “Seriously, there’s an amazing rainbow out there.” I pulled over to the shoulder and stopped the van.
“What’s happening?” the kids asked as Melanie and I got out of the car.
“We’ll be right back,” she said.
The two of us stood between the car and the grass facing the sky. We took in the stillness and the contrast.
“Do we have to go back in there?” I asked as I nodded toward the car.
Melanie laughed and said, “Maybe they won’t notice if we stay out here awhile.”
Later that evening, I sent this picture to a friend along with other family photos our trip. She texted back that it looked amazing. She wished she could have been with us.
“It looks idyllic in the pictures,” I wrote back, “but there was an intense amount of screaming.”
Her response: “Ain’t that a metaphor for life!”
Upcoming Event!
Friday May 10
Austin, TX
Possibility! An evening of storytelling through poetry, improv, and song
The Institution Theater