At the End of the Rainbow

A brief but powerful storm delivered heavy rains intermixed with soft hail late last evening.  As always, I stepped outside and stood on my front entry stoop to “feel” the intensity of the storm.  A sudden chill tickling at my arms.  The near-roar of rain and hail assaulting my roof.  The scent of wet earth and sagebrush circulating in at me from the open prairie.

Rivulets and puddles quickly formed all around me.

I witnessed as a single, electric yellow goldfinch flew in from somewhere out in the storm-darkening landscape and entered the leafy protective canopy of my Mayday tree.

The rain stopped rather suddenly.  In the west, clouds parted from around the sun, like stage curtains quickly drawn aside.  And then, a lovely trick of light.  A rainbow projected across the sky east of my house.

At the end of the rainbow I found my solar PV array.

—Mitchell Hegman