Overcome

This is my response to The Daily Post’s prompt, Overcome. Click the link to learn more, or continue on to my short essay.

On September the Eighth, I was not awoken by the sunrise. I was up before that glowing star broke the horizon line, and was likely in the shower or doing my hair while it rose. For the first time all week, I was not late to work. I did not arrive early like I had wanted; my subconscious made drinking a second cup of coffee in bed a priority over hustling to prepare for the day.

My day at work did not hold much importance. I took care of some office housekeeping and busy tasks that could have been put off infinitely. I did not stay until five, choosing to shop around in strip malls surrounding The Mall, choosing a pair of sneakers to bring home.

I was not my normal defensive self as I drove towards the highway. It could have had something to do with the beautiful sun-rain falling around me and the other drivers. Or the iced latte I had just picked up. Either way, I rushed through the EZPass lane and towards the on ramp, and then I looked up.

Today, September the Ninth, I am still breathless thinking about those bands of light shooting upwards into the clearing clouds. I can still clearly picture how brightly that combination of colors shone against even darker clouds – which of course is not well represented in that photo. The more northward I drove the more pronounced it got, until I reached the town where the rainstorm still pummeled the earth and the rainbow was gone, like a candle flame deprived of oxygen.

Today, September the Ninth, I woke to a mediocre sunrise. It touches me that cameras cannot capture the perfect essence of a sunrise, or a rainbow, or the natural colors surrounding us. Sure, the images can be altered to match the real hues, but the only way I can be truly overcome by Mother Earth is to gaze at her normalcies and marvels through the eyes I was born with, twenty-five years ago today.