Rainbows & Heartbeats

My friend Babs, who lives in England, calls me "the lady who stood in a rainbow," after reading the last chapter in my book Postcards from the Widows' Path.

But look what happened to her! She wrote this note to me a while back and has given me permission to share it with you. Picture her looking out her window onto the English countryside...

      Adequate words fail me but you'll know. 
     Yesterday, at 5:45 a.m. the sky was full of slate grey and dark clouds. I knew the sun was rising as it's brightness peaked over the roof of my house and lit up the farmers fence which is 3 fields away from my window. It looked silver in the light. 
     I continued doing my 'Postcards from the Widows' Path' homework. It was raining, growing darker, darker, erm...growing different. I sighed, looked out of the window and almost had a heart attack!
     Right in front of my eyes - just beyond the farmer's silver fence was a rainbow. The beginning of one. I'd never seen a rainbow head on before, so close - they are usually further away and I just see them from the side. I would have run out into my garden, rejoicing, had I not been rooted to the spot. 
     It was right in front of my eyes. Wide, wonderful. It's bow veered to the left of me as it arced. This lasted 10 minutes. The only movement, my heart racing. How unique is that...I experienced something of the wonder of your rainbow heaven. Yay. xxx

Here's an excerpt from the chapter that Bab's had just finished reading:
     As I stepped out of the boat (after a rainstorm)...I planted both feet firmly on the pier...when suddenly everything changed. I remember looking across our boat, across the bay and up at Cook Mountain. It all looked so different--clear and rain-washed, almost sparkling--yet so much bigger. Up the entire tree-covered side of the mountain, the tips of the pine needles glistened with drops of rain dancing down from one branch to another.
     If was as if all the oxygen molecules had suddenly expanded and started to shimmer. The air grew iridescent. objects took on a twinkling dimension; the posts of the pier, blades of grass along the shoreline, and two birds flitting across the water all stood out in a surreal moment. Then it hit me: I'm standing in a rainbow! More quickly than a breath, everything around me had changed character. Earthiness became ethereal, air became color, and in that twinkling of an eye, I realized heaven could be that close.
     At my last heartbeat, that is all it will take. Just one last breath and I will be there. My foot will step on heaven's shore as surely as my foot had stepped out of that wet boat and onto the pier. Earth's veil will lift like a shadow's passing moment...

What reminds you of how close heaven is today?