Megan's Rainbow

Some life moments wash over us as if they were scripted by Hollywood. The time is so intense we are certain that at any instant we might hear a director yelling, “Cue the music!” as the dramatic scene plays out before us.

Thus, I was waiting for the swell of the soundtrack of my life to begin playing last night while on a walk with my first born.

Her suitcase was waiting by the door.

Her passport was waiting in her purse.

Her future was waiting around the corner.

This was the night before she was to leave for Guatemala as part of a program to help Guatemalan women find life skills and careers that will keep them from being at the mercy of others. It’s a wonderful program–--one I fully believe in ---–for other people’s daughters. For my daughter, after she graduated from college, I was thinking more along the lines of a job within fifteen minutes of home, one she could drive to and from in an armored vehicle, with or without an escort from the National Guard. So it was, this detour from the life-bubble I wanted to keep her in was smacking me in the face while we walked on the eve of her endeavor.

It was an unseasonably cool summer night. The light mist of rain was a perfect setting for the mood I was wallowing in. We walked and talked and I hugged her as much as I could.

As we arrived back to where we began, we sat for a moment on the front porch, looking out at the cloud covered horizon. She indulged me as I blabbered on about how quickly the years had gone ---how proud I was of her –how hard letting go sometimes is.

And then, just as the misting rain was watering my wallowing, a ray of sun squeaked through the dusk sky. “Look,” my daughter pointed at what the ray had brought us.

There, right above us, was a rainbow. And at that moment I felt a blanket of comfort covering me, reassuring me, reminding me.

When my first born was a baby, her daddy used to sing her a song that became her theme song. The refrain is:

“Look, look, look to the rainbow

Follow it over the hills and streams

Look, look, look to the rainbow

Follow the fellow who follows a dream”.

As I remembered those words of her song, I realized that is exactly what she is doing ---following her rainbow –following her dream.

And if a director were to be shooting that scene of my life, he would have at that moment yelled, “Cue the music.” And the scene would fade with my arms lovingly wrapped around my baby girl.

For at least a few more minutes.