A Global Passion for Rainbows: Conversations with the World 103

The following excerpt is re-posted from a blog first shared years ago and is presented now because it makes a good fit for the Conversations with the World series.

“When an acquaintance from a social media site emailed me in March 2011 to tell me a quotation from one of my books was circulating on Twitter as a “quote of the day,” I said to myself: Oh, that’s nice, I think. As a brief afterthought while turning my attention to other real-time matters, I hoped someone would find the quote useful. I learned the next day that the trend had continued. I became curious enough to take a break from my work in progress––a literary memoir with the working title Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind––to do a bit of net surfing and look at the quote itself:

Dare to love yourself
as if you were a rainbow
with gold at both ends.

​“This quote, which became the basis for the book Journey through the Power of the Rainbow,  is from the poem ‘Angel of Healing: for the Living, the Dying, and the Praying.’ It was written to reflect the need for scarred and abandoned souls to celebrate their inherent value. It was also an acknowledgement of the challenge of sustaining an inner peace unshaken by the chaos erupting throughout the rest of the world. That challenge, however, was one which had to be met before an individual could hope to help humanity make its way from a suicidal faith in hatred and indifference to a more soul-nourishing investment in cooperation and the concept of a truly functional worldwide human community.”

Since those words were written way back in 2011, a number of rainbow quotes from Journey through the Power of the Rainbow (Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry) have become popular. More recently, Australian artist VIVA Anderson dedicated one of her pieces with rainbow quotes from Journey. They have helped inspire some of everything from self-esteem workshops and videos to Dare to Love Yourself Challenges on Facebook and Random Acts of Kindness Week activities. In fact, seeing different memes of the quote encouraged me to create original art combined with my text for collectors to purchase on Fine Art America and Pixels.com. 

The following are a few more shared on social media status updates:  

"Dare to Love Yourself" motivation quote by Aberjhani shared by Brilliant U.

Aberjhani's "Dare to Love Yourself" in Spanish text featured by Club De Millionarios.

"No envy between the different colors of the rainbow" quotation by Aberjhani on poster art by Resisting Hate.org.

"There is no envy between the different colors of the rainbow" quotation by Aberjhani featured as part of outdoor art exhibit by Crawley & Owens.