As I write this article today, it is pouring down rain at the office! And of all days, it’s my birthday! Initially, I was hoping for it not to rain so that I could go out and celebrate with friends and family. I definitely didn’t want to have to drive in the rain (being a new driver) and I wanted to celebrate during a time of it being sunny, warm, and chillaxed. Unfortunately, my birthday is November 20th and it’s during a time when it is likely to rain. Sometimes in my life, it might not have always rained on the outside of my house. In fact, several years ago when I was in foster care, it rained but more on the inside of my life.
I lived in a foster home that was very strict, and in some ways, over protective. They were for the most part not kind to me, to put it lightly. They did things they legally should not have done as foster parents. Every rain drop represented something specific in my life: bio sibling connection; foster home with other kids; school; foster parents; visits from social workers; visits from lawyers; and every raindrop in between that made for my coming of age. It was a lot, and yet it was something that I was used to having been in foster care since birth.
There was definitely lightening, thunderstorms, and heavier rain some days more than others, and even times when the rain would pour really hard. Even still, a garden does great when there is rain, and droughts cease when there is rain. In words of Marius from Les Miserables, “Rain will make the flower grow.” It’s only in seasons when there is precipitation that there is a rainbow in the clouds, especially as the rain stops and the sun shines through the parting of the dark and gloomy clouds. The rainbow can represent promises that will come. Even in what I was going through, there was this promise that I would prosper and have a brighter future.
I want to share with you that you have (in the words of Maya Angelou) rainbows in your clouds. With all that you’ve been through, the rain and each drop is forced to water the seeds of hope, dreams, and belonging in your heart. And as those seeds grow with the right type of sunlight (support people), your garden will grow, you will heal, and your heart will only grow wider with compassion for the world around you.
I know there are people out there who have had to move homes during their birthday month. Or something really uncool happened during that month so you’re reminded of it every year. But with these things that are inexcusable and life events we could not help or control, you can control how you respond and what you do from this point forward. You’re enough. You’re worthy. And the garden in your heart is destined with great purpose for everyone to bear witness to your beauty.
100%, the rainbow remains.