Just Beyond The Trees

"You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down." - Charlie Chaplin

Hawaii is nicknamed The Rainbow State. There are rainbows on their license plates and many island legends center around rainbows and divine figures appearing when the sun hits the misty rains.

There are the Rainbow Warriors at University of Hawaii and Rainbow Falls on the Big Island of Hawaii. There's the Valley of Rainbows where the beautiful Rainbow Maiden can be seen. There are double rainbows and native rainbow scholars who can make predictions based on the width of the bands and the colors in the arch. And the many different nationalities that have come to the islands and mixed with the native peoples make the rainbow an apt symbol of the ethnic melting pot that makes up the Rainbow State.

Before this latest trip back to the islands, Chris and I thought the Rainbow State was simply a catchy, happy name for the most recent member of our 50 United States. But that was because we'd never seen the diverse and spectacular display of rainbows that suddenly seemed to appear almost every morning! Stretching across the sky in all shapes and sizes, they were sometimes subtle, sometimes bold, and always breathtaking!

It was impossible to fully capture the magnificence of this particular rainbow, but I tried to at least capture its size and the brilliance of its colors. It stretched out across the mountains behind our resort and standing on our 22nd floor balcony, it was almost at eye-level. It was spectacular and magical and perfect; the day, which had started out overcast and rainy, was suddenly full of hope and expectation, and we immediately got dressed and headed out to the jeep. The search was on for a pot of gold just beyond the trees!

"Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow" - Douglas Pagels