A Change

Thoughts After The Rain

A Change

A summer afternoon shower has just passed by. Now, as I stand with the last gleaming rays of the evening sun against my back, I look up at the sky, still filled with clouds. Some are painted pink by the setting sun, still sending its last golden rays through the opening in the shadows. Some are still dark and forecasting rain for the new land they overshadow. Others are almost pure white, like a bundle of newly fallen snow.

Now, a rainbow can be clearly seen—the wonder of shining a light through tiny yet effective water droplets. But I wondered where the ends of the rainbow really were. Could anyone really stand at the end of a rainbow?

Now, as I am standing here, I think of tomorrow, which will be a great new day with a sky wiped clean of any clouds. There would be no hint of today's rainy day. With the breaking of the storm and the coming of the rainbow, I stopped thinking of dull, dark thoughts brought about by the gloomy weather and started thinking of bright, happy ideas. I began to feel “chipper.”

As I became aware of the change coming over me, I felt my heart pound a little faster – a little stronger. I thought, "I am glad there are rainy days just so I could feel this way after one."

A concise high school or college English paper with a grade of B on it.

(Written sometime between 1956 and 1959)

I sometimes wonder why I saved English papers instead of Math papers.

Larry E. Whittington