Rainbow Day
Lessons from a ten-year-old
“That’s a really beautiful painting, Jeremy.”
“Thanks, Gran.” Jeremy didn’t look up, as he busily put the finishing touch on his masterpiece.
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
Setting down his brush, Jeremy finally looked at his grandmother, who always took his art seriously. “Sure,” he said. “A lot of people don’t like rainy days, but I think they’re fun. I get to go outside and splash in the rain and when I’m not allowed to get wet, I can use my cool umbrella Uncle Mike bought me.”
“The one with the rainbow?”
“Yeah. Because then I can have a rainbow, even when there isn’t one.”
Gran sat down beside Jeremy, careful not to touch the wet paint. Jeremy appreciated that. He knew his paintings weren’t as good as they could be yet, but they were getting better. He had worked hard on the mix of colors and the rain drops to get them how he wanted them.
“I really like how you made the rainbow colors come together,” Gran said, as if she had somehow read his mind. “But what’s that little half-circle underneath the umbrella?”
“Oh,” Randy said, sitting up straight with excitement. “That’s the power switch.”
“Power switch?”
“Yeah. It turns on the rainbow power. I figure we can decide for ourselves if we want a rainy day to be a good day or a bad day. But we have to use the power switch to turn the rainbow on so we can see it’s there to make our day fun.”
Gran pulled Randy into a sideways hug, never taking her eyes off his painting. “You’re the wisest ten-year-old I’ve ever met. Will you leave this painting here for me to frame?”
Randy beamed at Gran as a real rainbow appeared in the sky outside the kitchen window. “I guess that means you want me to sign it,” he said.
“I guess it does.”
I was having fun with prompts on Midjourney and I decided to throw in some song lyrics. This was one of the images returned by “sunshine lollipops and rainbows everywhere.”
I really loved this image, though there are no lollipops in it. I was looking at it, wondering about the inclusion of the half-circle at the bottom. It occurred to me it might be a power button for a choice in how we view a rainy day.
I think Randy is smarter than I often am. He knows how to turn a potentially glum day into fun. I’m going to try to take his advice and remember to turn on the rainbow button more often!
Here are some other images from the prompt.
Lovely story and message, Dascha. I’m going to remember the “rainbow button” for a long time.
I love all those images and the story was great too! I love the thought of choosing the kind of day we want...sometimes.