Live and in Technicolor

I got up early this morning. It's my first day back to work after the summer, and I had planned to go in extra early to get a jump start on all that needs to be done to prepare for a new class full of second graders. We teachers have this week to get ready before students arrive and, of course, it's not really enough. So I dragged myself out of bed and shuffled my lead feet to the shower. It had already begun to rain hard outside, and while I was waking up under the warm water, the power went out, and I was instantly annoyed by the thought of having to finish bathing in the dark. I was relieved when the outage was only about a minute, but as I listened to the thunder and saw flashes of lightning, I sighed at the thought of a soggy, sloshy work day.

I went about the rest of my routine. Clothes, a little make-up, food, teeth, kisses for my just-waking husband. Grab purse and computer bag, don't forget to-go cup of morning fuel (a.k.a. coffee) search for keys, find keys, swing open front door . . .

I stopped in my tracks, right there on my front doorstep. Had both my hands not been full I might have rubbed my eyes. The rain had stopped, the thunder and lightning subsided, and the clouds had broken apart into big clumps allowing the early morning sun to penetrate. The result was astonishing to me. The grass in my front yard was so green it seemed electric. I wondered if it was possible that it had changed colors while I slept. The sky beyond was a shade of blue that must be reserved for very special cosmic occasions. The lingering clouds had a faint purple hue. Even the air seemed lit with color or brightness or something there's no word for, at least not in my vocabulary. There was just something. Something shining and tingly about the whole scene - the yard, the shrubs, the sky, the air, the blossoms on the trees - like something divine was breathed on the earth the moment before I opened the door.

I know right now I'm not describing the scene in a way that will truly translate into the right picture in my readers' minds. The closest thing I can think of is Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, when she emerges from her farmhouse, filmed in a dingy black and white, after having been blown about the skies and dropped back down to the earth and then all is strangely quiet. Remember that moment when she pushes open the door and steps out into a world so full of color and wonder?

That's how I felt this morning. It seemed that everything I could see from my front door was more alive than ever, humming with the energy of creation, and bathed in super-technicolor.

I drove to work in a daze, winding through the roads of my neighborhood on the short trip to school. More electric green grass, more insanely blue sky, more sparkling air. I kept thinking, If I were working on some kind of magazine spread involving a photo of the grass and the sky, and it were up to me to adjust the tints and tones of all the colors, I would never choose these shades. I would say to myself, "This just isn't realistic. Grass isn't this green. The sky isn't this blue." But here they are.
I pulled into the parking lot already thanking God for the beauty of this world, determined that I would write this blog post sometime this evening. But as if all that wasn't enough, my God put the cherry on top, as He so often does, because when I gathered up my stuff and swung my legs around to get out of my van, I froze. Again. And this time I even gasped, out loud, all by myself, because right there in the sky before me was a fat rainbow. In technicolor. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. I could see them all. So I just sat back in the driver's seat with the door open, my eyes brimming with tears, praying, giving thanks, in awe of God's tremendous gifts and grace for me. I think I heard him whispering, See how much I love you? After all, wasn't it all just for me?

Okay, maybe not. But it was a gift, that's for certain, and I can't think of a better way to start this new school year, all glittery and bright and filled with color and wonder and love.