All the Colors Came Out
All the Colors Came Out
“After the flood...all the colors came out.”
- Beautiful Day, U2
Those are lyrics from one of my favorite U2 songs, Beautiful Day. It is a song that lifts up how one can still find hope and beauty in life even in the midst of challenge. When we have seen this song performed in concert, when they come to this lyric, there’s a pause in the song and the lights quickly dim down and then the lights flash brilliant and colorful as they bust into the chorus of “Its a beautiful day...don’t let it get away...” A YouTube clip of one of the performances is at the end of this post.
So, the other morning I was walking into our laundry room when I was stopped by a beautiful sight.
This was simply the colors from the lights of our small basement Christmas tree reflecting off the wall. Here’s the thing though...a year ago that same tree was lit up in the same place but because of the color of the wall at the time, it didn’t reflect in this way. It was only after our basement flooded last Spring and we had to get it all redone (including new colors for the walls) that it reflected in this way.
After the flood...all the colors came out...
This moment came on a day after I received good news from a Covid-19 test. I had close exposures to several people who were themselves symptomatic and tested positive (and I was not feeling well myself) and there was a lot of anxiety in our house about what if I did test positive. In the days that it felt like a positive test was coming, it felt like a flood was coming.
The rest of that day, it felt like I kept seeing color in unique and beautiful ways.
The sunrise as I drove up the hill from my house on my way to walking with Scout...
Patterns of blue, white, and grey in the sky on my walk...
And finally a little burst of color from a sticker that had fallen on the path...
https://youtu.be/SGsH0lUzzl8