Vaporizing the Grumpies

I was on the ferry this morning, heading toward the mainland and feeling kind of grumpy. Well, really grumpy actually. The boat was running super late due to the ferry crew performing practice emergency drills at the dock – some kind of MARSEC training that put the crew into a pretend tizzy in the event of a credible security threat. I know that I should have felt grateful that the ferry cared enough about such a possible eventuality, but I wasn’t.

I was doing walk-on this morning and wishing that I had opted to drive on. Brrrrrr! It was so cold. I stood on the loading dock in the winter sleet and wind for the added 15 minutes allowed for the drill, awaiting the go-ahead to board and wishing I had worn more winter layers.

I stood there, my back to the biting wind, my numb fingers texting the various people with whom I had appointments that day on the mainland about our scheduled times:

Ferry running late. Don’t know when I’ll get to mainland. Will text you when we land and I am on the road. PS If it doesn’t stop snowing, I am going to be even later.

To put it simply, it was one of those mornings when everything wasn’t right with the world. I was on another planet: The Planet of the Grumpies.

Once we got moving, the ferry made its requisite stops, island to island, and I was feeling my Burden of Lateness weighing me down like an anchor set in the deepest part of the channel. We finally docked at the last island to load vehicles and walk-ons before arriving at the mainland.

I looked out the window and there was the most vivid rainbow across the channel. It was simply so vibrant, it was as if Nature had foregone its usual palette of transparent and ethereal watercolors for some opaque oils and gluey gouache. The saturation of color was that vivid.

Well, it’s not very often I talk to people on the ferry. Especially so to people I don’t know. But this rainbow was just so exquisite, I walked up to a group of three people who were sitting in a booth nearby and said, “You’ve got to see this rainbow!” while pointing out the window.

I am an introverted islander and tend to stick to myself when on the ferry, but I felt compelled to share the beauty. It was too gorgeous not to share. One of the women from the booth came outside to the deck where I was standing, and we watched as the rainbow advanced.

At first, we could see just one end of the rainbow. Then both ends. Then the rainbow advanced toward us until one of its ends was just this side of the cove by the landing and the other end was sitting on the ferry deck.

We marveled, as neither of us had seen a rainbow so near. It was close enough to give the illusiong that you could put your hand into it and count the varying shades of blue and violet, orange and yellow – thick vibrant bands of color that hung in the air at eye level in a perfect arc.

I said to her, “This is some kind of sign for something good.”

She turned to me and said, “I'm having surgery for cancer tomorrow. I'll take that good sign.” She saw the alarm in my eyes and put her hand on my arm to reassure me. “It’s stage one. I’m lucky. But I still needed this good omen today.”

We talked some more about faith, religion, and spirituality. She defined herself as a Tree Worshiper and when she said so, my mind immediately overlaid bark for her skin and leaves for her hair. It was beautifully eerie – this superimposition that was as real as the colors of the rainbow in the harbor.

The rainbow faded and retreated to the places that rainbows go to rest until their next show. As the beautiful tree woman and I parted ways, I told her that I would be thinking of her and sending her good, healing, happy, tree-dwelling thoughts.

And so here I am – in this brief narrative that describes the beauty of human strength and dignity in such a brave and lovely person.

Tree Lover, I wish you well, my new friend. I send you healing energy and thoughts. I thank you for inspiring me today and for giving me the imagery of you being a strong and beautiful tree. I thank you for sharing the momentary beauty of that amazing and healing and hope-offering rainbow with me and making it both memorable and spiritual.

Some days it doesn’t take much to turn the Land of Grumpies into a State of Humility.

This is what I thought as the ferry approached the mainland, and I readied myself to go forth toward my appointments with an I’ll-get-there-when-I-get-there attitude. A vivid rainbow and a brave person with a heroine’s heart inspired the much-needed shift that I needed from Silly to Real . . . Grumpy to Humble.

I believe that there is a holiness in encounters like this. It is the simple, serendipitous moments like these in life that put is in neutral for a practice drill in order to be ready for what may come and for what may grow the spirit. I feel humble and grateful.