I was one person in a full six-passenger plane. I had a friend next to me, and it was one of the few times I was really enjoying myself since I had moved to Guyana, South America. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was struggling with what would end up being a life-long battle with depression. Moving to another country for a year had set it off in a way I had never experienced before.
But this day, I was feeling very little of that. My friend and I were off on an adventure in a tiny plane headed to the jungle. I wasn’t nervous at all about flying. I found it exhilarating, and I was having a blast taking photos through the window right next to me, chatting with my friend, and just having a good time.
In the middle of one of those three activities, something outside the window caught my eye. I had never seen anything like it before. The shadow of the plane I was in was inside a circular rainbow. I grabbed my camera quickly and quietly so as not to scare the image away. I took the photo, glanced away and then glanced back. It was gone.
Then and now, about 11 years later, I see that rainbow and this photo as a gift. I was going through a difficult time, and I was given a piece of beauty. Because I have a photo of it, it’s something I can still look at whenever I’m having a hard time.
In the midst of the miscarriage, infertility, death, and loss I’ve experienced over the last few years, I looked back at this photo numerous times. It didn’t solve all my problems, but it did make smile and that is also a gift.
Glimpses from the Other Side 