While driving my mom to her house this morning, from a 7:30am train station pick up, I asked her if she saw a vertical rainbow in the sky. She said she'd seen it from the train but didn't know why. (Since there wasn't the usual formula of rain + sun = rainbow.) I told her the vertical rainbow was behind the trees up ahead on the right. She saw it too. It wasn't just me and my sunglasses clad poet's eyes. I drove and we talked some more. I told her about seeing a rainbow in a cloud over a year ago – watching it form, hold for a brief moment and disappear – and feeling it was a sign of Hope and of God's Promises to be fulfilled. She said she'd never heard of that, a rainbow in a cloud. I told her when I'd said it aloud, in the car that long ago day, my father in law said, "Rain's coming." He's a farmer.

Since then I learned the phenomenon of a rainbow in a cloud is called a Sundog. Then as I was driving, Mom pointed to the left. I thought at my speedometer, so I slowed down.
She said, "No. I hadn't noticed that. There are two."
I replied, "Rainbow Pillars. Holding up the sky."
She said, "I'd never thought of it like that."
I added, "But there is no connecting curve…and they are needed to hold up the sky, 'cause lately it sure has felt like it is falling!"
We laughed aloud and she sorta reluctantly agreed.
I said, "I'm so glad you saw it too. So if we're Fruit Loops, we're Fruit Loops together."
Mom replied, "We both have poet hearts."
Yes. Indeed we do. I told her my business cards read, "Artist, Poet and Daydreamer."

After taking her home, I stopped in a random parking lot to take a photograph of the Rainbow Pillars, before they disappeared before my very eyes. Quickly, in the moment, I uploaded the picture of the Rainbow Pillars, flanking the risin' sun, to my personal Facebook profile. My photo caption read, "Janean Baird admired these two Rainbow Pillars, holding up the sky, on an early morning drive with her mother. No rain. No curve. Just Vertical Rainbow Columns. Way cool!"

Johanna, who has known my mother (and me) since before I was born, commented, "Sun dogs?" She also provided this handy link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

I replied, "Yes! I told Mom about them as we gazed…"

Today is February 1, 2013. A new month. The second month of a still new year, 2013. Some may feel the thirteen is unlucky. I'm holding on to the heartfelt belief that 2013 is going to be a year filled up with JOY, LOVE and HOPE.

"I saw a rainbow in a cloud", a poem born from a Hope Filled day at the end of September 2011.
http://my.opera.com/jbaird/blog/2011/10/07/i-saw-a-rainbow-in-a-cloud

"Winter's Rest", another recent conversation between my mother and I
http://my.opera.com/jbaird/blog/2013/01/16/winters-rest

© 2013 Janean Baird, Turquoise Tangles