Keep looking for rainbows through storm

I’ve spent a lot of time lately looking for rainbows.

It’s a lesson I learned from my daughter when she was a toddler.

While I love a good thunderstorm as much as the next person, we do have a rare storm through here that does more harm than good.

You know the ones I mean, the kind that flatten crops and pastures with bruising hailstones, rip shingles from roofs and limbs from trees, send trampolines and lawn furniture tumbling toward Texas, pummel livestock and wildlife, or even unleash an occasional tornado.

One of those potentially ferocious clouds was developing on our western horizon one summer day a couple of decades ago.

We were outside doing some yard work, and I remember looking at it with a suspicious eye and muttering some comment expressing concern.

My little girl looked at that exact same cloud and her face lit up with joy.

With the kind of excitement that toddlers invented, she exclaimed, “There will be a rainbow!”

Tiny people can be so wise.

We’ve had some big and scary clouds around us this year, but every day I see rainbows.

One day it was an exhausted clerk at a local grocery store telling me she was honored to be in a position that allowed her to serve her community.

Another day it was learning that a young couple I know has set up a Facebook page for their neighborhood so that anyone who needs anything — whether it be a roll of toilet paper or help changing a light bulb in a high spot — could reach out to them.

Against a backdrop of global grimness, there are countless reports of kindness and grace and courage and love, day after weary day.

This storm is still dark and brooding and full of unknowns.

But there will be … there are … rainbows. I would love to hear about yours.

Betty Williamson can’t wait to see her next rainbow. Reach her at:

[email protected]