Stepping out

I am often reminded by some symbol that if I take the time to look, taking a moment to step out of my own ‘story’, that there is beauty everywhere that I look. Everywhere.

In my story, the past few weeks have been pretty brutal with work. Fortunately, this is the first time in a year that it has been that way. My head, for the most part has been stuck on a problem that we are trying to solve, the questions that management keeps asking that I can answer. Chief of them is: When is going to be fixed? Will it be fixed by the date of the demo?

How does one answer a question that has an indeterminate answer? My crystal ball is broken. It must not have been a very good crystal ball in the first place or else I would have known that it was going to break and would have had it replaced!

The weather for the past week has been somewhat symbolic of our efforts to solve this particular problem. Each day it has started of sunny or at least only partly cloudy. By the afternoon, usually around 2:00 or 3:00, the clouds start to gather, the sky becomes gray, and the rains start to fall. Accompanying the rain is a great show of strength with thunder and lightning. Were I one of my primitive ancestors, I might say that the gods were not pleased with our efforts at solving the problem. Usually, by the time that we leave, the hard rain has abated and there is a steady downpour. So ends another day. At work, in the morning we’d brainstorm, come up with another possible solution or two, test them, see them fizzle, and walk away at the end of the day quite dejected. As I have a lot of experience developing software, there was no doubt in my mind that we would solve the problem. We just need time. However, you know how it goes, management wants it solved by a certain date!

Yesterday was similar in nature to days past. The storm gathered around 2:00 PM, the rain started, but there was not so much thunder and lightning. I offered to buy the guys a round of margaritas at Chili’s, they were game, but one of them had something to do, so we put it off until today. I didn’t want to go home right away to just sit and brood. So, even though it was still raining just a little bit, I went to beach.

While at the beach I met a nice couple from West Virginia who had been coming to Charleston for 20 years for their vacation. We talked about a number of things while I watched her husband feed the fish. Well, actually, he was fishing, but the fish were winning quite overwhelmingly. He always brought back and empty hook! After about 20 minutes, it started to rain and they decided that they’d rather stay dry, so we parted ways. I took a few pictures and decided to head home.

On the way back I was headed in a westerly direction. The clouds were starting to clear and the sun was starting to peak through. There were still about 30 minutes remaining before sunset. I noticed a flock of birds passing between me and the brightening sky. What a beautiful sight that was, all of those birds in silhouette, but alas, I was driving on the highway. No where / time to stop and take a photo. As I came to my exit, I noticed that to the east, a rainbow had formed. I has been a great number of years since I’ve seen a rainbow. I cannot remember the last time.

I wanted to find a place to pull over, but didn’t see any that would offer me a good vantage point to take a shot. Finally, when almost home, I found a place, pulled over and took 8 shots of the rainbow before it finally disappeared. It actually lasted quite a while.

When I returned to the car, I was smiling. Not because I got the chance to take a picture of the rainbow, but because I was able to view it, see the birds, talk to the couple, and enjoy the sound of the beach. I smiled because, for a brief moment, I was able to step out of my story and see the beauty of the world around me. The beauty is there, whether I look or not! No matter if we solved the problem yesterday, which we think that we did, it was a great evening.

I guess that you have to have rain to have a rainbow!

No related posts.