The sky is awake, so I am awake

I’ve been chasing the Aurora Borealis for a few years now. Growing up I had only heard of them but didn’t live in an area to see them. With sailing, being north, and a wonderful overly active solar season I have been educating myself on how to increase my chances of seeing them. The Aurora app on my phone has let me have a clue as well as following other groups on Facebook who are just as obsessed as I am. And it appears my work has paid off. My first sighting was just earlier this spring. I could barely see them with my naked eye. They were just a small portion of the sky. I have seen them two more times on this trip. Both a little better but still hard to see without my lens. I had heard they were spectacular so I knew I just hadn’t really seen a great showing yet.

Last night changed everything.

I can’t even begin to fully describe the experience. The sky turned color at night. The lights danced. A night rainbow! They flowed like a river. They created visions that only Hollywood would make you think possible. They stretched the entire north horizon from east to west and then the lights stretched out and curved to connect well over our heads (they stretched so far they overlapped the Summer Triangle constellation) making us feel as if we were in a planetarium. They flickered like flames and shot in all directions. I took my glasses off at one point as they got smudged and I could see the rivers and shimmers with my glasses off (and if you know how blind I am, that is saying a lot!). This among countless shooting stars…

We were poorly dressed and Richard was cold and tired. He let me sit out on the beach til 2:30am all by myself. I mediated. I confirmed my most inner peace. This is where I’m meant to be. Out, living in the world. Fresh air, being humbled by this great earth we get to live. The material things of this life seem incredibly small. I remembered an overnight back packing trip I took as a kid. I was miserably cold but I couldn’t pull my eyes off the midnight stars high on a mountain top. I knew then….really knew then, that all I cared for was inner peace and seeing and being in the world. I saw with the same wonderment for hours, not wanting to miss the gift. I am not a changed person, but a person who knows her inner peace and so grateful.

I posted pictures in chronological order so they get more brilliant as you scroll. After about 12:30 they were so vast that I simply couldn’t capture them and decided to stop playing with the camera and just be.

Even when I finally gave up at 2:30 they were brilliant back at the boat. Maybe we didn’t need to drive up north 15 minutes, the view was great anywhere if you had clear sky’s. I took an 8th anniversary picture of Ciara’s mast under the Aurora Borealis and took Kona for a magical walk before finally calling it a night around 3.