Rainbow

Within my life, when taking into account all of the escapades, seconds, adventures and understanding revaluations, there’s always been rainbows. It sounds odd when you add the word ‘rainbow’, to a sentence as supposedly meaningful as the one above, but it works. We’ve all seen one or, at least, I hope that we have. When was the last time you noticed a rainbow?

I was a youngster when I first witnessed my first spectacle of colour. Bright and blue eyed, the world seemingly still a small place, with an imagination that has only just started to settle. The world presented a slice of beauty, a moment of wonder, with many questions quickly following.

Now that I’m older, I could state that we could all be a rainbow. Colourful, majestic, spreading smiles whenever we appear, but that would be far too obvious a statement. Whereas, as I think about it, maybe we are just like a rainbow.

The rainbow is an optical illusion. Beautiful, wondrous, with so many differing colours formed of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and even violet. Just like humans, who also present an optical illusion, can often be somewhat different once you move closer. One person observing from a slightly different angle, will see something different, even when the next person is but moments away.

Some pretend to hold colours as an aspect of beauty, yet hair colours often gather scorn, or worse. We all adore beauty, but push away differences such as a larger nose, with such blatant ease. We are all different, with many simply trying their hardest to be exactly the same as the next person. Life needs to be diverse. We need to be our true selves to enjoy what life offers.

The rainbow is not an object, with no real solid form that you can hold against yourself, along with no actual pot of gold being found at the end. Maybe this is a tale for life’s energy. The more you chase, the more life moves away from you. Unobtainable dreams are to be dreamt of, but wouldn’t realistic dreams be better accomplishments for each of us? We all chase the pot of gold, often forgetting that some plans need to take time and energy.

We are now living within a time where the colour of our rainbow skin defines us. Words such as privileged, supremacy, as well as wondering which lives matter, consumes some of our daily thoughts. Where has the beauty of witnessing a rainbow gone? Life simply does not need to be more complicated than wishing to smile. We work hard, we ask for safety and shelter from our own working hands, to which we provide for ourselves (mostly).

Each colour of a rainbow sits alongside its neighbour. The red cares not that blue is blue, or yellow is next to green. It matters not that the rainbow is not an actual object, as it simply exists upon a given day. We as people, as individuals, exist and can easily remove the colour variable or differences, to then simply accept whatever, for whatever it might be.

There is no issue. There should be no violence. There need not be demonstrations or life ending. All we need is to accept differences, to see beauty in any of the beautiful colours. We need to turn off the televisions. We need to escape the media. We should, upon a magical day, rise from our safety, venturing forward to easily, simply, lovingly, go outside to see all of the wondrous rainbows that are beside us each and every single day. Life has been complicated to an unnecessary degree.

I asked you when the last time you noticed a rainbow was because, as time moves forward, we need reminding… that rainbows exist.