a monsoon rain falls
two stand alone against time
fish swim in smooth lines
- K Mackey (Haiku Generator)
In the coolness
of the empty sixth-month sky...
the cuckoo's cry.
- Masaoki Shiki
two rainbows
have risen over
the green paddy field
have risen over
the green paddy field
- Masaoki Shiki
A few days ago, a fast moving wall of slate clouds stalled over my valley. It hid the red rocks and produced a fresh wind ahead of bursts of hard rain. Flower pots, bird baths and hummingbird feeders shivered and filled with water, overflowing onto the deck. Sheets of water swept across the hills. The sound of overfilled gutters and tumbling rock in the wash drew me outside where the mist blew through my thin dress and refreshed my skin like a dewy shower.
Soon, the cloud wall had moved further north and just as I considered going inside to finish my work, the faint color outline of a rainbow appeared on the eastern horizon. Sun and soft rain had created this beauty and soon the color deepened exposing another color outline and another rainbow, an even deeper-hued arch below the original one. Double rainbows are not rare in this red rock country during monsoon season, but I always think the appearance of double rainbows are singular and extraordinary. The weather has many lessons to teach us, but the most heartfelt lesson is that rainbows often follow a hard rain. Wait for it. Expect it. Celebrate it.
May all beings know love and peace.
