“The Rainbow That Was Looking for Me”

This is from a beautiful soul I admire deeply. He’s a Bona fide hero and an NDEr. Because I am still in my “OZ” bubble and because of my own love of rainbows, which I often have in my posts, I wanted to share this. It’s lovely and the sentiments are too. It’s long although the picture shows how it lands. It’s where Rainbows come from.
*Note, my website is not monetized. I left the poem as it was written. Enjoy the change of seasons within.

Copyright 2026
Rev. Bill McDonald

“The Rainbow That Was Looking for Me”

I have always chased rainbows,

not because I believed

they hid a pot of gold,

but because they appeared

for a few quiet moments

where heaven remembered

how to kiss the earth.

I have spent a lifetime

following colors

that dissolved

the closer I came,

yet each fading rainbow

left a softer heart

than the one that began the journey.

I have searched for love

the way rivers search

for the sea—

not knowing

they already belong

to the same water.

I have hungered

for the touch of warm sunshine,

for receptive hands

holding mine

without trying to possess,

without asking me

to become someone else.

There were days

when loneliness

felt like an endless winter,

and nights

when I believed

the stars had forgotten

my name.

Still,

something older than hope

kept whispering,

walk on.

So I wandered

to sunny beaches,

listening to waves

that spoke the way the sea talks to every child.

I waited

for the perfect wave,

certain that somewhere

one graceful swell

would finally carry me home.

But the sea,

that patient Zen master,

laughed in its endless rhythm.

“There is no perfect wave,”

it seemed to say.

“There is only the one

that rises beneath you

when you stop comparing

this moment

to another.”

Then I understood

what the ancient sages

had always hinted at.

The rainbow

cannot be captured.

Love

cannot be hunted.

The sun

does not choose

who receives its warmth.

And enlightenment

is not waiting

at the end of the shoreline.

It is the quiet awareness

that the One

who was searching,

the love being sought,

the rainbow,

the sunshine,

the sea,

and the open hand

have never been separate.

Now I still walk the beaches.

I still smile

when rainbows appear.

I still paddle out

toward another wave.

But I no longer believe

I am chasing anything.

The horizon

has become a mirror.

Every step

is already an arrival.

Every breath

is another sunrise

within the boundless heart.

And somewhere beyond

the restless mind,

Love has been

holding my hand

all along.

#

Copyright 2026

Rev. Bill McDonald

“The Rainbow That Was Looking for Me”