On New Year’s Day the weather-beaten residents of northeast Ohio received a few special gifts from Mother Nature: sunny skies and temperatures reaching a balmy 61 degrees! That is downright tropical for a January day in Ohio, especially after the frozen tundra of a December we endured.
My husband and I attended the annual Polar Plunge at the Erie Kai Tavern and beautiful Firefly Beach Resort, walked out on the frozen shoreline of Lake Erie, and watched over 45 people plunge into the 38-degree water. I’m still amazed by this feat, but this year it just didn’t seem as brutal for those fearless plungers. If you’ve never been to the Erie Kai, it is a great place to enjoy a cold drink, listen to live bands, learn how to dance, or hang out on the lovely shores of Lake Erie.
As the day progressed, the true Ohio psycho weather ensued, and we experienced rain, cloudy skies, sunshine, and plummeting temperatures. I was not complaining because the brief respite in the cold for part of the day allowed me to walk on the beach, collect sea glass, and, later in the afternoon, I witnessed a gorgeous rainbow over Lake Erie.
Ohhhh, wow, whoaaa, look at that, it’s so beautiful… I thought to myself. Unlike Hungrybear9562, I did not cry, take a three-minute video of the rainbow, post it to YouTube, and get 23 million YouTube hits, but I did wonder a little about what it all meant. It was the first day of 2011, and rainbows are a rare occurrence in Ohio, so the experience had a magical quality to it. I decided my rainbow sighting must have some deep spiritual meaning for me.
After a little Internet research, I learned there was a practical scientific reasoning behind my sighting: Rainbows happen when the sun is shining while it is raining. Yep, the sun was shining, and it did rain in the afternoon, so, damn, the psycho Ohio weather was responsible for my rainbow connection.
Next, my yogic thought process kicked in as I thought about how the seven colors of the rainbow could also be tied to the seven centers or chakras in the human body. Perhaps I was getting a message to get more in touch with my chakras and finish all my chakra homework assigned as part of my yoga-teacher training.
But the more childlike, imaginative side of my personality had to do a little further digging to find that rainbows have many meanings and are a symbol of peace, hope, and unity. A rainbow can be a sign of a new beginning, when the old is swept away (a perfect sign to see on 1/1/11). It can also signify the cyclical evolving of a new world (the world is supposed to come to an end as we know it on 12/21/12). Wow, that was one divine covenant of a sign and one that has special significance to me as we enter 2011.
Hungrybear9562 was not smoking dope when he saw his double rainbow (well, maybe he was smoking something), because it is fairly common for a rainbow sighting to provoke a deep emotional response. I know it did for me; it brought out a childlike wonder and evoked a sense of joy and optimism for the coming year and, now that I know a little more about rainbows, a hope for peace and unity throughout the world.
I would love to hear about any rainbow sightings you’ve had recently or what you think rainbows symbolize.
Rainbows are so lovely. They always make the child in me sing!
Something I learned fairly recently is that rainbows are mentioned in the Bible. After God floods the earth in the Book of Genesis, saving a few people and animals with Noah’s ark, He decides that He’ll never destroy all life like that again, and He says that the rainbow is the sign of His promise. Here’s the passage:
“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” ”
I think that’s so neat. The reference Genesis 9:8-16 (here: http://tinyurl.com/3yz3yx5).
OH, I LOVE rainbows… we see them so often here in the Columbia River Gorge that we alsmost get blase about it. But there is magic in each and every rainbow that I see… Yes, child-like wonder is what I would call it.
And we did our own special New Year’s fun… A Polar Paddle… SUPing on the river in REALLY cold weather. I’ll be writing about it in my blog this week… now that I am back to work 😉
I saw a rainbow too, on Jan. 2, in cold Saskatoon and my girlfriend saw one on the same day in San Diego! What a timely post. We were talking about how beautiful and significant they were for the start of a year. I’ll take it as a symbol of peace, hope, and unity any day. Thanks for sharing! Happy new year!
Wow! What a fantastic way to start the new year! Rainbows are very special. Probably because we do not see them all that often. I think it is magical you saw one on New Years Day! On the day my second son was born, there were two rainbows in the sky, we always said, one for each boy. It was a good omen, I think. And same for you and your New Year’s rainbow!
Love the pics!C.
I believe rainbows can bring hope during hard times… was sitting in a car in front of boyfriend’s parents’ house after a break-up, and it has been raining hard all afternoon… not sure to come in or not, all of a sudden I saw the sun peeking out so I started hoping for a rainbow, and as I stared into the lit-up patch of sky-there it was! began appearing more and more clearly and I smiled…I thanked God-who else would bring it on?
I saw a double rainbow on the same day my dad passed away. Now every time our family sees a rainbow we think of him. 🙂 Almost all the girls in our family have a rainbow tattoo now. 🙂
Rainbows are very special whenever I see one I feel it’s a good sign.