The Golden Heart of the Rainbow

I want to live,
I want to give
I've been a miner for a heart of gold.
It's these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching for a heart of gold.
- Neil Young

It was a dreary day, and the light hadn't been good. Overall, the color of the day was gray. When I drove home at the work day's end, an incredible ground mist was rising over Skytop. It was chilly and drizzly and damp; hypothermia weather.

My husband had baked a nice chicken dinner, and we enjoyed that thoroughly. And then I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes (for the best time to wash the dishes without resentment is when the meal is still warm in your belly; or so I have found).

When I looked out the kitchen window, I noticed the light was starting to change. Suddenly there was a strange light in the sky where none had been before. And then I heard . . . thunder? Couldn't be, as it's February, and we don't often get thunderstorms in February where I live; but it was.

I kept an eye on the sky; watched as clouds began to clear just as sunset was thinking about arriving. It looked more and more dramatic, almost seeming to glow. It was so beautiful and strange that I almost swooned - it was as though I had never really seen light before this.

But I could only see it through trees. I felt twitchy; I wanted to go chase that amazing light. But I was home, and I had several chores to do before I could sit down and relax. I thought sadly to myself, "Somebody, somewhere, is getting great pictures. But not me."

And then my husband hollered at top volume from the living room, "HOLY COW, YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS!" And I went. And outside our front window was the biggest, brightest, double rainbow I may have ever seen! Of course, you know what I did next. I sprinted for the camera!

Suddenly, my husband was by the front door, opening a huge umbrella, offering to hold it over me, as we both walked out the door and into the pouring rain. For yes, it was clearing behind the house but raining in front of it! Go figure! We joke sometimes that the front yard and back yard are separate ecosystems; and indeed, so it may be.

And so we strolled together down the drive, arm in arm, with me taking pictures all the while. We couldn't believe the colors! They were so bright and vivid! As we got to the end of the drive way, I decided I wanted to shoot right down into the heart of the rainbow; to try to get a shot of the very base of it; where the rainbow touched down to the ground.

And so I was super-zooming, holding the camera steady, trying to get a look right down into the heart of things. And suddenly, all I could see was bright yellow light. For about 15 seconds, the sky flashed gold, as I snapped away.

My husband reported that he saw lightning too (lightning! in February!), but I only had eyes for the rainbow. When I went inside and downloaded the pictures, I came upon the one you see above, and I just have to say I shook my head. It's possibly the strangest rainbow shot I've ever taken. I'm not even really sure what was going on here.

You can see a swirl of the mist off to the right. The colors of the rainbow itself almost seem to be . . . coming apart; separating at the seams. Yes, my friends, I have peered deeply into the heart of the rainbow and what I have found there is pure bright beams of golden fire.

You probably guessed the song choice before you got this far, didn't you? This one is a favorite, and I am delighted to have a reason to use it here. The song is Neil Young's marvelous Heart of Gold. I'm including the original version, of course (while watching the video, you may grin when Neil introduces this "new song" he's about to perform). But I've just stumbled across another version that I am listening to now for the first time, and just maybe you'll love it too: Johnny Cash, with Heart of Gold.