Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

It could be a rainbow smudge or a mist, Trapped in an ocean ripple. Single or double or triple (sometimes), Is there gold at the ends? Maybe stock dividends? Or the wisp of a spiritual tryst?     Off the Coast of the Alaska Peninsula~ September, 2021  

Every now and then our brave photographer comes across a truly amazing sight, and today we are blessed by the birth of a rainbow. Rainbow Fountain Full of Clouds    

I saw a blade of grass today, Holding a rainbow in a drop of dew.

Fractals! They’re those never-ending patterns that “display self-similarity…in all scales”. In mathematics, a self-similar object is exactly or approximately similar to a part of itself.* Is there no rest for the self-centered? Do you want to know how to be a fractal? Just do the same stupid thing over and over! And this rainbow we are talking about. There is the very same self-similar rainbow in each tiny droplet and packet of drops and fountain of drops! And there you have the essence of it; the soul of it if you will. The rainbow, in fact,  is immortal. Do you remember how to discover a rainbow? First locate body of water (a dew drop will do). Position yourself between the drop and the sun, and sooner or later there it will be. Of course it’s been there all along. A soul waiting for the right circumstances. Fractal Fountain in the Italian Garden of the Conservancy; Central Park *Somewhere on the web…

This Blessing Rainbow has momentarily stopped to rest in the fountain mists of the Conservancy Italian Garden. Notice the collection of Innocent  Bystanders-- or bysitters, if you will --totally unaware of their blessings!  They are being showered with rainbow spirit-blessings that will  travel with them forever, as they make their way along their worldly paths. Mystical Blessing Rainbow Watching Over Resting Cyclist Blessing Rainbow Creating Happiness in Fountain Sitters Mission for the Day (note: this mission may take a little longer than a day, since sometimes it's not that easy to find the proper spot where a Blessing Rainbow is staying) Go outside when the sun is up and shining. Locate a source of running or spraying water. You may locate sprinklers, fountains, (include drinking fountains), droplets on the edge of a leaf.... Position yourself between the water and the sun. You may have to move near, back up, go slightly left or right. W...

Mission for the day: Sneak up on a nearby fountain on a sunlit morning. 1. Position yourself between the sun and the fountain (sun behind, fountain in front). 2. Move right, left, forward and back until you catch sight of the rainbow. 3. Stop a nearby person and lead them to it. 4. Don’t tell them how you did it. The fountain can be tall or short, large or small. The rainbow lives nearer to the ground in the late morning or early afternoon, and higher up in the fountain if the sun is low. If fountains are not available, you can locate a sprinkler. It’s a miracle! It's magic! It’s physics!

An early end to a late summer day, rounded out with a sun rimming rainbow Looking South toward Turtle Pond, September 2010

It takes a quick eye and an opened mind to find a rainbow resting in a sprinkler's moving  waters.  Keep a lookout, though, for a honed eye will find the golden sap among the rainbow shavings. Shakespeare Garden, September 2010

I feel the ache of summer. The calendar would disagree, but I know the warning signs.  A cool day with leaves four inches wide, green side up, stem-red, semi-glossy.  Two sparrows in a chasey touch and go, three geese splashing in the Harlem Meer vying for that taste of early honey. Oh I see the saddened, bitten days.  I know how to hesitate, and what's the use? But must we miss the smell of summer linden? Is that the price of closing well? Or are those squares and pieces gnawed and splintering regardless?  Look!  Over there!  That carefree early summer rain is smoothing out the endgame.

I was walking along an old path when I saw a large pot.  Inside it was a map with faded ink and well worn creases.   "I know where the rainbows are," it said.  I keep it in that small indelible compartment.  You know the place.

Isn't it nice to remember New York is the greatest city in the world

It was only I who saw it I believe. It doesn’t matter though, since now I will be on the lookout! We are on a plane from Dallas to La Guardia. I’m on the left side ahead of the wing. Next to me is a pilot trying to catch a 6 o’clock plane and we are both late. He lets me have the window seat, since he gets to look out all the time. It's green below the white bushy clouds, with a layer of mist winding its way around them. It's the grey of summer rain. I look down, and between these swirling clouds there is a summer canyon defined by shadows, and there it is! -- short and fat and barely bent. It looks the length of perhaps a submarine. I can’t believe it but it stays there, and I watch for maybe seven minutes.    I reach for my camera, but the rainbow has quietly gone.

If you want to look for rainbows, you need a little fortitude. I thought I could find one with a protractor mind and a little luck, water and sun, but that is not the entire story. It was about 7:30 am in June. Rainbows are shy, and you must be in the right spot at the right time, so we were rushing. You need to be between the rising sun and the Rainbow’s dwelling place in order to catch sight of it. Today’s rainbow lives in a fountain. I’m watching the shadows, since I believe the exact viewing spot will be where the shadows point directly at the fountain. But the path keeps bending, and the shadows are smudgy and pointing here and there. We are trying to decipher a Rorschach of bushes, grasses, runners, trees and shadows pointing everywhere. It’s getting late. I am the designated rainbow hunting expert by now on and I am losing heart. We are definitely out of range north, and so we go back south. Who says the ‘sun rises in the East”. What East? Which East? Bend, bend goes the ...