The tornado notifications started coming across each of our mobile devices. We were under full alert that something was about to happen between a drizzle and full on armageddon. It was the end of the month and the end of the quarter so many of us were unable leave the office early for the extended holiday weekend.

The caliginous sky became extremely unpropitious. Between the resounding thunder and the velocious lightning we were distracted from our work to awe in Mother Nature’s seasonal flash of irreparable fury. The insufferable crashing of the clouds together boldly hinted that the show was just about to begin.

From our fifth floor perch we have 180 degree views above the tree line and in our corner office the view expands to 270 degrees. Our colleagues have a ringside seat for literally every storm raging across the sound shore or through the Hudson Valley. This one was different. The alerts said tornado and this would be a first for all of us who had shared so many epic storms together in the past.

The winds picked up their acceleration and agitation as the mighty oaks and maples thrashed wildly against the evergreen giants that surrounded the perimeter of the building. The rain surged at an inconceivable rate like multiple car wash sprayers on hyper speed. The force of all of these elements coming together all at once and so quickly terrorized our remaining staff. It was unanimous that no one was going to take the risk in the current storm and leave the premises before the end of this ferocity.

“Look at that, over there, over your shoulder,” exclaimed Mark. As I turned around to see what he was referring to, I was blinded and a bit stunned by the brightness of the western setting sun amidst the darkness. The murkiness of the tornado-threatening sky had subsided rather quickly as the white sunlit rays stepped into a more prominent feature role alongside some of the other celestial bodies, reflecting its majesty in every rain droplet that continued to trickle down across the county.

As if it were written in a storybook, the most audacious and illuminating, perfectly full-arched rainbow now presented before our eyes. The heavenly reward of red colored light exclaimed its presence at its anointed 42 degrees – bending and being the most accommodating as it hugged its sisterly spectrum. Orange and yellow collaborating just ever so slightly less together. Blue and violet shifting downward in the tightest configuration – bending the least in their uncompromising lower ranked positions.

It was in this moment that I realized where the end of the rainbow (at least metaphorically) may be. While Judy Garland, Israel “Iz” Kamakawiwo’ole and countless crooners have dared to ask in their lyrics “Beyond the rainbow why, oh, why can’t I?” It wasn’t about going beyond the rainbow – it was going within.

The answer I propose of where the end of the rainbow might be right, could be where we begin again. As the Josh Groban lyrics to Believe share, “Destinations are where we begin again.”

Enjoy each storm.

Be rewarded by the random occasion where light hits the front of the droplet, bends as it enters, reflects back of the droplet and then leaves again through the front, back toward us.

The rainbow is a reflection of our soul’s journey and the events that unfold in front of us. The end of the rainbow is indeed a chance to begin again and be that reflection to others that we want to see in our own lives.