Take just a moment to close your eyes and picture this, comlete darkness. I'm not talking millions of little bulbs filling the sky with a faint glimmer. Nor do I want you to picture even a sliver of the big ole cheese wheel that offers us on Earth an eerie glow. Remember those beautiful days as a child playing hide and seek? Remember how you would hide in the closet behind all of the clothes in the absolute dark so as not to give away your position? That's the darkness I want you to envision while your eyes are closed. Next I want you to envision a world in which that darkness is what you have to endure each and every day of your life. No light. Just pure darkness. Do you feel that sinking of your stomach, like a ship that just hit an ice berg? Sit in that feeling just for a few agonizing minutes.

Now that you feel like a boulder is upon your shoulders with no hope of throwing it off, I want you to take a deep breath. Go back to the memory of hide and seek, the nervousness of being found radiating off of your skin. The fluttering in your heart and veins. The childlike joy you feel knowing that your friend is going to open that door with the biggest smile you've ever seen. An even bigger smile reflecting on your own face. The sense of peace as you crawl out of the darkness you were so brave to endure. Let that peace fill every inch of your soul. Now when you go back to that empty dark place of your mind, imagine what those feelings what be represented as.

For me it's a rainbow. The most powerful bursts of colors that burn your eyes in the most intense yet non painful way you could ever encounter. The deep red, orange, and yellow bringing the feeling of fall in the mountains. And while on that mountain in complete and utter tranquility, you take a moment to take in the deep dark green of the pine trees and the baby blue of the sky that surrounds you. These are the kind of colors that encompass the rainbow that shines only on the darkest of nights.

That dark night? That's what I encounter every time I close my eyes to sleep. And in that dream world, the rainbow? That's you.