Somewhere over the rainbow

As many of you saw, we were graced with an incredible perfect double rainbow on Wednesday afternoon. To date, the photo we posted on Facebook has garnered the most likes and shares of anything we’ve ever posted. While it’s a great photo, I didn’t think it was THAT good. It kind of got me thinking. Why? Why was that picture such a hit?

I have to tell you, what you don’t know about that photo is that when I walked into my living room with a feverish and sleepy toddler in my arms, it looked like that rainbow was IN MY HOUSE. Both Remy and I started hooting and hollering, and I dashed out into the rain shower without shoes. By the time I got to the end of the dock, I was literally standing in the end of the rainbow. While there were no leprechauns or pots of gold, I did feel like I might get sucked into Narnia or whisked off to Hogwarts. I flipped out. I absolutely sounded like that guy Hungrybear9562 on YouTube.
While I don’t know what standing in a rainbow’s end means, it’s does have me thinking about these things:
1. We are so plugged in it aches. Screens and images and the hum of the computer follows us everywhere we go. In this day and age, finding a quite spot to appreciate the abundance and beauty of this world in which we live is increasingly difficult. That we know over 110 boys and young men are running and playing and yelling and getting dirty in this wide, wide natural world – right this minute is reassuring. Even if we can’t sit on the lake shore as the perfect rainbow-making storm rolls by, our future fathers, husbands and leaders ARE.
2. Camp is a moment in time. Those rainbows came and went inside of ten minutes. Just like moments of refracted light slip quickly by, so to do these precious moments of summer and, indeed, these precious moments of boyhood. I am particularly sensitive to how fast this time goes by. We recently had a former camper and staffer visit Highlands who is now a crew chief flying around in helicopters for the US Marine Corps. I have photos of him as a 9 year old rolling around on the ground with our old dog. It seems like yesterday!
3. Rainbows are LUCK. They are filled with symbolism. And despite being a pretty unsentimental person, the fact that I danced in the end of the rainbow on Wednesday is soaked in meaning. We are SO lucky. Lucky to belong to this community. Lucky to be under the careful and loving wings of Mike and Sharon Bachmann who make this whole thing possible. Lucky to have happy and healthy boys. Lucky to have the support of families near and far, spanning the decades. But mostly lucky to be here now.
4. People loved that photo because it reminds them that there is something incredibly magical about Highlands. A summer at CH is not just learning to throw a perfect spiral football, or dropping a ski. It’s about building a special kind of inner strength. One all their own, without moms, dads or siblings to help or hinder. It’s about how they may leave Highlands, but Highlands will forever be in their hearts. That perfect double-rainbow is a metaphor for this experience. Gorgeous and fleeting.
5. With just a week left of summer 2013, I’m left feeling full. Full of excitement for what your boys will come home with; stories, jokes, tans, a certain calmness after a summer of running amok. I’m feeling full of purpose as an administrator and communicator. Full of refracted light and full of luck.
And on that note…
I ❤ CH // tracy b.