The Rest of the Rainbow

Before you even go there, I KNOW you can’t see a rainbow in this picture. I can barely make out the faint outline near the center myself, and that’s only if I angle my head and turn the laptop in just the right position, in the right lighting.

You’ll have to take my word that just a few minutes after Clarice showed up, a rainbow began to form in the middle of an almost slate grey patch of sky. I gasped, and my entire body felt like I’d just been struck by lightning. Through my tears, only minutes earlier, I had challenged the Archangel Julie to send me a rainbow. It was gonna be the only way I’d walk away from that bench without heading back to my tent to wallow in self-pity.

And she did. Luckily, I had my new obscenely expensive Canon 550D in the backpack right beside me, so I whipped that sucker out and started snapping. Or I should say, I started squeezing the shutter button like it was the last slice of lime at a Gin and Tonic party. Nothing happened. The lens made a weak attempt to focus, but the image wasn’t captured.

Frantically, I made a split-second decision. I’d brought my little pink point and shoot along as back-up, but unfortunately, it wasn’t in the backpack. I made a mad dash back to my tent, getting snagged in a big clump of thorny branches along the way, snatched the camera and ran back to the bench, cursing myself for spending so much money on my so-called “Grown-Up Girl Camera” which had failed me when I needed it most.

Like I said, I know you may not believe it based on this picture, but there was a spectacular rainbow in the dark, gloomy sky on my birthday in the Maasai Mara, and it made me unbearably happy. And that experience also taught me another important lesson. After the sky had cleared up and the last vestiges of the rainbow vanished, I felt something in my left pants pocket. It was the spare Canon camera battery I’d made a point of bringing along on the trip.

THAT’S when I figured out why the camera hadn’t worked, why the flash had refused to budge. THAT’S when I realized that I’d had the power I needed all along. Hope I’ll remember that more often in my life.