Take time to notice life

I realized the other day on the way in to work that there was a rainbow in the clouds. It was beautiful. I was also unfortunately saddened by yet another thought though, am I perhaps the only person in this line of traffic who has noticed it? After weeks of scorching summer heat and no rain what-so-ever we finally had a good storm that particular morning. A storm that was strong enough to keep things wet for a while and slow down rush hour traffic. A storm that was large enough that it kept the sun blocked out for a majority of the day. It seemed though that everyone else on the road was doing nothing more than cursing the rain for slowing down their drive in, rather than stopping for a moment and realizing that perhaps this storm was a good thing.

This storm blew in with a mild cold front and kept out high temperature for the day out of the triple digit range for the first time in weeks. It certainly wasn’t enough rain to end our drought, which has local lakes over eleven feet below their normal levels, but it was enough to mean that if that day was your allotted day to water your yard at home, you didn’t have to. The air was cleaner thanks to the rain washing our months of dust and pollution. And to top it all off, it was as though mother nature had decided to smile down on all the commuters that morning with a big rainbow.

Taking a second look at the people in sitting in line for the stop sign like I was I noticed that I really was the only person who had noticed it. Nobody else was glancing around, let alone even venturing to glance skyward. There it was though, as big and bright as you please, one of nature’s grand treasures, and nary a soul was noticing beyond me. I actually stopped in the next parking lot and watched it for the next few minutes until the sunlight and clouds shifted a little and the rainbow disappeared.

When I got to the coffee shop a block away I noticed that several of the cars that were in line with me just moments before had their drivers just getting out then. They sat in traffic, growling at the other motorists, grumbling at the rain, and getting all worked up over not getting to work fast enough. I thought to myself how much better off I was because I took the time to stop and relax and notice something special around me, and, quite humorously, was no later to work than had I sat in traffic gripping the steering wheel and grumbling at everyone around me just like they were doing back to me.

That day at work I managed to keep my stress levels down by just remembering that rainbow and how I had stopped to breathe for a moment. It made a world of difference in my attitude that day. I try now to stop at least once every day to re-notice something that I would probably have overlooked while pretending to have such a hectic life that I can’t stop for one minute to enjoy things.