One of Life's Lessons

We always think it would be great to have everything in our lives go smoothly and remain on an even keel. We don't remember that to enjoy and appreciate the mountaintop view, we must first descend into the valley. I love rainbows but to truly see their beauty, it takes both the rain and the sun.

When I was 54 and single, I interviewed for a different job. The interview went well and I was offered the job. I started sometime in the early spring of 1989. It turned out the man who interviewed me was my boss' boss. This was not stated at the interview. My boss turned out to be fresh out of college and she seemed very immature to me. I won't go into detail about the job because that isn't the important part. Briefly, I was considered professional staff and so I had two years probation. At the end of 18 months, I was given the opportunity to resign - or be fired.

I have never been a quitter so I chose to be fired. I had never ever been fired. The dastardly deed was done Friday afternoon.

Monday morning arrived with rain. It rained inside, too, because I cried. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had purchased a condo after I got this job. So here I was in my lovely condo with no job to pay the bills.

When I finally quit crying, I walked from the bedroom down the hallway. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining. When I was even with the kitchen doorway, I saw rainbows reflected on the carpet. I went into the living room and there were rainboqws all around. The rainbows helped me know everything would be ok.

Now logic told me the rainbows came about because the butterfly with crystals in its wings was hanging in the kitchen window. I do understand about sun shining through crystals.

I had been living in the condo for about 18 months. The butterfly had been hanging in that window all that time - and I had never seen the rainbows reflected on the carpet, on the walls, reflecting off the mirror over the fire place. I know the sun had been shining on lots of those days I had lived there.

Isn't it interesting that when I needed to know everything would be all right, there were rainbows all around?