ScotlandDay34: Rediscovering Rainbows

I’ve rediscovered rainbows since returning to Scotland.

We have rainbows where I live, but nowhere else that I’ve ever been has there been such an abundance of color exploding from the dark clouds in the rain-swept sky.

I’m no meteorologist, but I’m guessing that the fast-moving weather patterns, brought about by so much wind, allows for the blessing of the many rainbows above Scotland.

My kids are big fans of the ocean and all not-so-secretly hoped I’d take a call in some place like Florida or South Carolina, preferably with a beach-front property they could come and visit regularly for their annual sun quotient.  But I am much more a mountain gal and opted for a different direction.

Here is not a place I’d describe as the ‘beach’, which conjures for me the idea of warm sun and sand and crowds of people basking in the warmth and frolicking in the water.  Here, the water is almost always much too cold to spend much time in it.  Here, the rains are far too often to allow for sand wallowing.  Here, sandy shores are more for walking than sprawling upon.

Here, it is the sea that greets you.  Here, the winds force your body into a horizontal posture as you navigate the sand.  Here, the shoreline is more like the rough coast of the northern states of the US than the more gentle sands of the southern coastline.  Here, most days you can watch the storms far out to sea and wonder whether they’ll make it in to the shore or not.

Here, a rainbow is a respite, not a sign, a fleeting blessing, as fleeting as the sun.