Rainbows of the Heart

He arrived home while she was pulling the garbage cans to the road in preparation for garbage day. He asked why she didn’t wait for him, but she had no answer. She just wanted to get it done. What he said next she didn’t expect. “Do you see it? No, I think you can’t from here,” as he pointed to the sky. “See that cloud there, right above the trees? The rainbow cloud,” she looked up and gave half a nod of her head. “Now, look over there to the left a bit, and there’s another one a little further over than that, too. Neat, huh?” She looked up, following his directions but the late day sun was in her eyes. It didn’t matter to her if she couldn’t see them for the glare, because of all the things he could have said upon getting home--he could have complained about the long commute and the traffic, the lower pay he was getting, or how hungry and tired he was--he chose to point out to her rainbows in the sky. She felt the rainbows in her heart and contentedly walked into the house with her husband.
This really happened and it just serves to point out that it is the daily gifts we give each other that make relationships last. It’s the lunches packed for each other, garbage taken out, hedges trimmed, laundry folded, grocery shopping, dishes done, control of the remote given up, letting the other person pick the destination for a day trip, and pointing out a flock of geese flying over or rainbows in the sky that count. Special days like Valentine’s Day are nice, but I would rather have the little daily gifts that show how much I am valued and cared about than all the roses and candy in the world.