Aurora Borealis

I'm sure that everyone has a list of things that they must do or see before they die. For me, it shifts and changes over the years as I grow and change. The one unchanging item on that list though, is seeing the Aurora Borealis...the Northern Lights. I have caught a glimpse of them once, on a chilly night out in Stowe. They were faint and looked almost like the equalizer on an old stereo, but they were there. However, I don't qualify that as seeing it in the form I want to truly see it in to be satisfied. I want to see them from the great northern...the arctic or Alaska. I want to see the myriad of colors, the pulsing waves, the dancing lights. I want to see the sky overtaken with them. I want to be engulfed, entranced. There are days that I think about it for hours.


I don't know what it is that draws me so strongly to them, but it evokes such strong emotions in me, I have no idea what I would do, will do, once face to face with this magical earthly event. I don't know if I'd be able to stand on my own two feet.

One day I will see them from far up north. Hopefully sooner than later.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars

I started our new bookclub book this past weekend, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. So far, it is a really good book and I find it hard to put down which is rare for me. I have to remind myself that our bookclub meeting will not be for another 3 weeks, possibly 4, and I don't want to finish it too soon and forget key parts.

Each chapter begins with a quote or saying. Chapter one began with what I have as the title to this blog - "When it is dark enough, you can see the stars". At first, I just liked the way that sounded and it's direct meaning. The past few nights I have been walking places at night and on multiple occasions I could feel a very strong light shining down. At first I would assume it to be a street lamp, but upon glancing up, I realized it was a big, bright white moon shining down. On nights that are so bitter cold you can barely feel your face after walking just one block, the sky seems to be 10 times more clear, the stars 10 times more visible, the moon 10 times more powerful. I love nights like this. I get lost in the moon, entranced by it. The glow it creates behind the few wispy clouds feels so magical.

I began to think more about that quote in terms of my life in general and realized it has a very direct relation to things going on in my life at present. Sometimes things become most clear when everything is turned off, all distractions put aside, everything removed from the situation for at least a bit. Sometimes clarity comes from stepping completely out of, and far away from the box. Sometimes it seems dark at first, scary, unpredictable. But then your eyes begin to adjust to the "dark" and slowly, the "stars" appear. We become so used to seeing things by the light of day, and sometimes are so scared of the dark and the loneliness that can sometimes accompany it, that we avoid the dark with all of our might. I think the dark can let all of our other sense perk up and absorb things we were oblivious to in the light. And then the stars appear and we are no longer lost, no longer wandering blind.