And Then There's a Rainbow

Last week was a hard week.  Dr. C was out of town; we had the toilet episode, then the faucet on one of the bathroom sinks broke, then the air conditioner in my van broke during a solid week of 100+ degree heat index days, then the dryer (that was already taking bites out of our clothes) started squeaking in that make-dogs-go-crazy way.  Then the phone company and the Internet company had some miscommunication and turned off our phone service.  Then I hit the wall for the first time running.  Needless to say, it was not a pretty week.

Sometimes I think it takes those low weeks for me to recognize all of the good things that I have going. 

One of my favorite hymns:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Now I don't think that last week counts as being "upon life's billows" because we've certainly had harder weeks than that one.  But when something seems to go wrong everyday, my usually-sunny disposition gets overrun by dark thunder clouds of grumpiness.  Ironically, the weather the past few days has seemed to mirror my mood.

But then the other night we were driving home in the rain with the windows rolled down (no air conditioning!) and the rain cooled things off a few degrees.  Grateful for some relief, I could feel my irritability lessen a little.  And then T-Man yelled from the back seat that he saw a rainbow.

A rainbow.  One of nature's simple, beautiful phenomenon.  A flash of color over a dismal gray sky.  A small reminder that the gray doesn't last forever and there are wonderful things just around the corner.

In an instant, as I appreciated the wonder of the rainbow and heard my children oooh and aahh over the beauty of the colors, my grumpy clouds started to disperse and life was good again.

To top it off, Dr. C has returned and has been fulfilling his role as my knight in shining armor.  He fixed the faucet, restored our phone service, figured out what was wrong with the dryer (waiting on a part to get it totally fixed) and the van will be fixed hopefully by the end of the day today.  I love that man.

Today, I am thankful for rainbows--the ones that show up in the sky after rain and for the people around me that break through my grumpiness and remind me that there is beauty ahead.