Rainbows on the Wall

March 26, 2006

The sun is shining this morning and I have a rainbow on my wall.

A few years ago when we were home on HMA, we had a free day and drove up to Leadville, Colorado. The highest city in the States, if I remember my facts correctly. It was cold and snowy but the sky was clear as a bell and deep cornflower blue. We parked our car and walked up the street, stopping now and again to peer at a window display. It was slow going for me due to the altitude. I have high blood pressure that is difficult to control. Since I’d been living at sea level here in Ukraine for three years, going back up to 10,000 feet was hard on my body. But I was home in the mountains and determined to adjust again.

As we were walking up the street, we spied a coffee shop and went in. How coffee shops have changed over the past several years, and mostly for the better! We ordered our drinks (I almost always have a mocha), sat awhile, and talked. The building was old, at least old for Colorado and the West. It appeared to be one of the original buildings in the city, with some of the original furnishings, including a very old wooden bar. It just “felt good” to me to be sitting there in a little coffee shop in a little city high in the Rockies of Colorado, a gold and silver mining town with a storybook American West history. I tried to imagine what it was like during the height of the silver boom, with thousands of men walking the streets, camp followers in their houses, saloons, horses and wagons – oh, I think we all get the idea. I was touching history, MY history, and I loved it.

After we had warmed up with the coffee and rested awhile, we walked farther up the street. On the corner of one of the crossroads was a little souvenir shop. Some of the historical aviation items on display in the window reminded us of one of the American missionary families back in Ukraine. Mel opened the door and we went inside to explore further. There was a lot of “stuff” in that shop. Typical tourist stuff, postcards, candles, fancy soaps, refrigerator magnets, and some much more expensive “stuff” that was way out of our pocketbook range. I found a rack of wind chimes and started looking through them, brushing the little pipes to hear their different tones, examining the different designs. I found a little one about 8 inches long, pewter in color, with a hummingbird drinking nectar from a columbine at the top. In the space between the bird and flower hung a little crystal. I checked the price tag, then showed it to Mel. He agreed that we could afford it, so I carefully picked it off the rack and took it and several postcards to the counter to purchase. I shipped it to Ukraine later, in a box of books (written in English!) and other items we had purchased.

After it arrived in Ukraine I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, where to hang it. At that time wind chimes were very uncommon here in Kherson. I had only seen one or two at one of the stores near the market, and they were expensive and had an oriental look to them. I wondered if it would draw people’s attention too much to our balcony if I hung it out there. Finally, I decided to put it in the window – on the outside – and just use it as an ornament, not a chime. I think that was a good decision then, and I’ve grown to really like it there. I like it there because when the sun shines in the early morning – I have a rainbow in my livingroom. A rainbow that always reminded me of that day exploring Leadville. Until we were home this past year. Now that rainbow reminds me of my grandson.

My mother collects snowflakes (fake ones! ). One day while shopping at our local TsUM (Central Universal Magazine – or the big government department store in the city center), I found several crystals for sale. They were almost hidden in a display case in one of the downstairs departments, but what caught my attention were their settings. One was set in a golden hot air balloon, another was set in a golden flower, and a third was set in a golden snowflake. I asked, “Skolka?” How much? The man behind the counter, hearing my terrible accent, hurried to show me each and everyone. A “rich American” was there and he might just have a sale! I was surprised to find out that they really were set in gold, or at least they were gold plated, not just brass or bronze or heaven forbid – plastic. The price was a little expensive, but I thought to myself, “I have not seen my mother in three years. She is very special to me and I miss her. Is this really too expensive of a gift for her? No.” I bought it.

It was actually over a year later when we were home for Christmas. I had packed up all the gifts I’d collected over the years for people and the snowflake was one of them. She opened the package, ooo’d, and aaaah’d over it, then hung it in the west window of the livingroom.

I wasn’t sure if the crystal was really all that good when I bought it. Here in Ukraine it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes you buy something that looks like quality and it turns out to be expensive junk you just end up throwing out before too long. Sometimes it turns out to be a gem. And this turned out to be a gem. When the sun hits the crystal in the late afternoon, my parents’ livingroom is filled with rainbows. Rainbows scattered across the ceiling, down the wall, over the carpet and up the fireplace. And they are beautiful rainbows. Round circles of multi-colored light at one angle, long pointed ovals at another. And the colors are deep, rich, and very bright.

My grandson, Stirling, is now only 18 months old. He spends a lot of time with his great-grandparents while my daughter is at work. Last summer, one of the first things I showed him as he began to crawl around was the rainbows. My hope and prayer is that Stirling will grow up to see. So many people go through life and never truly see what is around them, never take the time to explore the sky, a flower or watch a flock of birds chatter at each other. While we were home and I was able to spend time with Stirling, one of my goals was to explore his world with him. After I pointed them out to him, each afternoon he would quickly notice the rainbows and crawl over to the ones on the floor. Of course, if he was between them and the sunlight, they ended up on his backside while he searched in vain for them. It was fun to watch his eyes open in surprise when I turned him around and showed him the rainbow on his belly. He tried in vain to grab hold of it. Often I would tell him, “God made the rainbows just for us! They are a promise that he is never going to flood the whole earth again.” (He has several storybooks with the story of Noah and the Ark, so he was familiar with it. I believe it is never too early to start teaching a child the Word of God.)

Just a day before we flew back to Ukraine, we were again at my parents’ home for a visit. Stirling is walking now, running and playing with his cars and blocks. But oh how delighted I was when late in the afternoon, he walked up to me, said something in his baby babble and looked up at the ceiling. I glanced up and there on the ceiling were five rainbows. I lifted him up and he reached for one, turned and smiled at me.

I miss him so very much.