I woke up to a rainbow

It rained last night. When I awoke around 7:15, the sky was battleship grey. I decided to shut my eyes for a few more minutes.

When I opened them again, at about 7:30, the sky was even a bit darker. But there in awesome glory was a rainbow. I sleepily raced for my camera and caught it.

Somehow, the experience of a rainbow is so much more than the picture. There is so much promise in it. In Genesis, God gives Noah the rainbow as a promise that the world will never again be destroyed by water. But to me, there seems to be much more. It seems to say to me, “Spontaneous beauty is all around you! And you have no clue as to how or why it works. And it’s ok! Be grateful.”

Why is this important to book-writing? I want people who read my books to feel that way. I want to inspire a sense of awe and gratitude in people–not to me or for me, but for their lives, for the beauty and goodness that are theirs.

In this blog, I focus a lot on how your book can serve your business. But with all its utility, a book is your child. You love it because it is your child. You want it achieve its full potential. You want it to do well by doing good.

And you know that it is a mysterious creation, one whose totality is beyond your grasp.

On a recent visit to Israel, I saw a play, “The Same Sea” (“Oto Hayam”), based on a book by famous writer Amos Oz. He appeared on stage before the play to speak about his experience of writing the book, which was unlike anything he wrote before or has written since. “I feel like a cow who discovers she has given birth to a seagull,” he said.

Rainbows. You can’t see one whenever you want, but they are around us.

Filed under: book love • book writing • inspiration

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