Back in December 2009 I was having lunch at the cove on a cold winter’s day.  I leaned my head back in the car, and looked up at the sky, just relaxing. The sky was blue, not clear blue, but a little hazy blue.  I saw a sight I had never seen before.  There was a sideways kind of short rainbow, and from the middle of it a light beam extended, like a huge spotlight.  Kind of like the picture below, but with less clouds, and a very pronounced beam.

I just stared at it.  It was so amazing, this spotlight that extended  through the sky. I stared at it, studied it, until I had to go back to work.  On the way back to work, at the top of a hill, I saw that there was another one, equidistant from the sun on the other side.  I had no idea what I was looking at, but it was beautiful, amazing….took my breath away.

I later found out that it was a sundog.  Caused by ice crystals in the air, and the sun at a specific angle refracting the light in this way.  I felt totally blessed to have seen it.

Fast forward a couple of months to February 2010.  I was now in the 3rd year of a contentious divorce.  I was in limbo then, waiting for the Supreme Court to decide if they would even hear our case.  (My ex had appealed the Superior Court’s  decision to them, in an effort to keep me from getting anything.)  My son was with me, he was 17.  I was getting child support so financially I was in decent shape for the time being, but I knew that when he turned 18 in a few months that would stop.  I didn’t know how I would be able to take care of us both on my salary, I had committed to taking him on a cruise with a bunch of his and my friends in June when he graduated, and paid for it 8 months before, because I was sure that by now my divorce would be resolved and I’d have a settlement.

I was scared.  Anxious.  Sick of the battle.  I just wanted it behind me.  I wanted to move on with my life.  I’d been in this position with constant court battles with his father for so long.  One morning in February I just broke down, I said, “God, I know everything is going to turn out ok, but I really really could use another sign.  I’m beginning to lose my grip.”

Then I dressed for work, and went off on my day.  On my lunch hour I needed to run an errand to Walmart about 2 miles from work.  As I left work, I could see a bright spot under the sun.  I thought, wow…that’s cool.  But just kept driving, I didn’t focus on it.  There is a slight hill to get to Walmart, and a stoplight where you turn to go in.  I once again saw the bright spot under the sun.  I leaned over to look out the window better.

And there I saw…..the bright spot, a complete circle of a faint rainbow around the sun, a bright spot on top of the sun equidistant from the bottom spot, and on each side, the same thing I had seen at the cove that day, a small sideways rainbow on either side of the sun, in the rainbow aura, with spotlight beams coming out of them, bending toward each other in the huge sky.

I got into the parking lot as quickly as possible, got out of the car, and just stood there looking at it.  I remember laughing, just laughing.   It was so incredible…like a cosmic light show just for me.  No one else seemed to even see it .

And I remembered my request that morning, for a sign.  There was no question that this was my sign.

I don’t know how long I stared at it.  It was impossible to guess the distance it covered. I felt like it might be 100’s of miles.  The beams extended so far beyond me.  I had to turn a complete circle to see the ends of them, bending toward each other.

I look back and think people must have thought I was crazy…standing in the Walmart parking lot, laughing at the sky.

Since that day, sundogs have been my good luck sign.  I look for them now, and see partial ones, like the one at the cove often.  I’ve never seen the complete thing again.  Yet.

So….it did all turn out ok.  It took another 18  months and the divorce was over, the decision was confirmed, I got my settlement, I bought a home, and while I am far from rich, I have been able to make a nice, and happy life for my son and I.

I renamed my jewelry company after the sundogs that day.  Sundogs Designs.  As it turned out the sundog that day, a Friday, was the prelude to a very unusual weekend, I was given so much more, but that’s for another blog, for another day.

I’ve never lost faith that everything will turn out ok.  No matter the heartbreak, no matter the difficulty, I know it will be ok.

Blessed, just blessed. Below is a picture of a sundog phenomena that I saw on FB.  Which is beyond words to describe it, but I think anyone would agree with me.

Peace and sundog blessings.