Kaleidoscope

It is raining when she slips into the kaleidoscope. The muted sound of raindrops on the roof catches her off guard, and looking up, she finds herself falling through a myriad of bright colors. The kaleidoscope’s mirrors shatter the colors into miniature rainbows, truly kalos eidos scopos, beautiful shapes to look at. “Glory be to God for dappled things” flashes through her mind. To the left, purple and blue rhombi pulse hypnotically, while a glance to the right reveals an ever-emerging arrangement of multi-colored fractals. Pied beauty indeed! Gerard Manley Hopkins now juxtaposed with M. C. Escher! The sight is breath taking; she can’t pull her eyes away from it all.

It isn’t just that the colors are overwhelming, it’s the contrast between where she had been to where she is now. It is Dorothy leaving Kansas and entering Oz.

As this thought enters her mind, she feels the despondency of the last few days (weeks? years?) fall away to be replaced by a warmth which encompasses her body.

The colors suddenly summon synesthesia. Colors birth music: reds are Mussorgsky’s Great Gates of Kiev; yellows, pinks, and lilacs elicit Grieg’s Morning from Peer Gynt Suite; and blues become Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World.

This should cause chaotic cacophony, but instead the songs seem to encourage, to reaffirm each other, to merge into a harmonious blend of joy and wonder. Instead of overwhelming, it only completes. So, this is how life should be! Joy surges through her as she closes her eyes in contentment and accepts the changes within her.

The joy manifests itself into a smile which stays with her as her sliding becomes a slow spin, lightly settling her onto the ground while rain falls gently around her.