light

“Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side?” – Jim Henson’s Rainbow Connection.

People have found this wonder of nature astounding, mesmerizing, amazing, inspiring, and beautiful. Rainbows have been the source for stories of bridges to other dimensions and pots of gold at their base. Truly, one of our world’s wonders.

The rainbow, we know from science, is caused when light passes through water droplets, usually when a rainstorm is followed by a sunlit break in the clouds. It comes in the form of an arch across the sky, sometimes by itself, sometimes doubled, a spectrum of colors frequently including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and deep purple.

No matter how many times I have seen a rainbow across the sky, I cannot just ignore its beauty. It is graceful, colorful, and wondrous. And it adds such a range of amazing colors to the sky.

“Rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide.” – Jim Henson’s Rainbow Connection.

Not only have rainbows inspired songs, but they have inspired many works of fiction. From leprechauns and their pots of gold to a means of travel between vast distances of time and space, rainbows can provide a great deal of inspiration. Have you ever tried to chase down the base of the rainbow to find its beginning and end? Great arch of color crossing the sky like nothing else in nature.

Rainbows have taken on other, more important meanings. Rainbows have been used to symbolize hope, to express a unity of color and those things that supposedly make us different being one, whether that is race or sexual orientation or nationalism or what-have-you. The rainbow and its separate but equal colors shows us how no matter our differences, all are part of the greater whole. Rainbows are the ultimate symbolism of the oneness of everything, no matter how different its components might appear.

Songs, stories, art, even various religions have explored the many hues of rainbows. Different visions of the multi-colored wonder cause us to open our eyes to worlds of imagination.

There is a purity in the rainbow arcing across the sky. It is the most simple expression of its various colors within nature itself, lighting up the sky in ways the sun and moon and stars cannot. Rainbows give us nature’s colors in another manner akin to flowers, but loftier.

I defy you to not stop and observe the next rainbow you come across. Truly, a natural wonder of our wondrous world.

“Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me.” – Jim Henson’s Rainbow Connection.

I am MJ Blehart, colorful author of “Wednesday’s Wondrous World”. Every week I share a wonder of this amazing world, and I hope you will enjoy the journey with me!

Check out my blog, The Ramblings of a Titanium Don, for more of my work.

Also now available, Pathwalking: A 21st Century Philosophy in Book and Kindle form!

“There is no darkness but ignorance.” – William Shakespeare.

Darkness. In certain connotations, this is a negative thing, an emptiness of light, a space of terrors and horrors and nothingness to be feared. Yet darkness is a wonder not to be discounted, for like most things in this world, it is what we make it to be.

“Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.” – Leonardo DaVinci.

This is a perfect example of how darkness is a wonder – without it, we cannot know light. Darkness is the yin to light’s yang. The polar opposites that all others are defined between.

Darkness can be the birthplace of imagination. From darkness we can find incredible creatures, unique worlds, and a place in need of light.

But darkness serves other purposes. Darkness tells us that the sun is at rest, that the world needs to slumber, that we need to get sleep.

There are creatures that thrive in darkness. Nocturnal hunters and deep sea creatures that cannot abide the light. For them, darkness is when the world holds all its possibilities.

And the deepest depths of space are full of darkness. At the point where the light of no star can reach, we can only imagine darkness. But space is vast, and filled with uncountable stars and worlds and probably other life across those dark reaches.

Darkness is shadow. Darkness is contrast. And it is on the other side of darkness where we can find its opposite. The “light at the end of the tunnel” or “through the darkness to the light” create instant images in the mind.

If dark is yin and light is yang, it is the extreme. For even in darkness, color is not absent, just as in light. Darkness can be partial, total, absolute, and many shades between.

Darkness is not simply and overabundance of color or lack thereof, nor simply an absence of light. Darkness represents desire, represents blank spots in time and space, gives us a start point or an end point to reach of depart from. Sometimes darkness gives and takes secrets that cannot be hidden in light.

Close your eyes, and see what images cross your mind. Your eyes see flashes of color, seek out points of light. If you move towards a meditative trance you can see the past, the present, the future, and realms of fiction and fantasy that may only exist in your mind. But through the darkness there is wonder.

Darkness is not something to be feared. Darkness is the yin to the yang, darkness is as awesome or as terrible as we make it out to be. It can be the inspiration to aspire to greatness, or to pause and take rest. Darkness can be the gateway to unimagined worlds and alternate realities beyond.

Metaphor, simile, pure fact…darkness is a wonder.

I am MJ Blehart, your deep, multi-dimensional, sometimes disturbed, occasionally dark “Wednesday’s Wondrous World” author. Every week I share a wonder of this amazing world, and I hope you will enjoy the journey with me!

Check out my blog, The Ramblings of a Titanium Don, for more of my work.

Also now available, Pathwalking: A 21st Century Philosophy in Book and Kindle form!

Chakra Center

Wednesday’s Wondrous World: Rainbows

Wednesday’s Wondrous World: Darkness