Reason #482....
...that I love living where I do:
This is not to say that you never see the Northern Lights back East, it's just that I never have. Not until I came to Alberta did I experience these dancing lights in the night sky and tonight... tonight was phenomenal!
I first notice a glow, the barest perception of green between me and the stars. I look up. The sky is filled with it. Patches of green streaking across the sky in curves and whorls. Lines of emerald wafting in and out of focus, sharpening into waves like the veriegated colours of old scarves, yet dynamic and moving as though dancing to the echoes of a song it seems I can almost hear.
It's impossible to take it all in. As if in a trance, I've moved to an open space and I am spinning like a jewelry box ballerina, arms outstretched as I try to catch every variation of light and form. Spinning. Head back, looking skyward, I am overwhelmed as an unconcious and unbidden tear slides down my cheek and yet I smile. One word fills my consciousness and I say it aloud as I continue spinning. "Thank-you". Whether it's God or Mother Nature or the sky itself I am thanking, I do not know. It simply feels necessary.
I spin and smile and watch for a long time as the patterns and waves of jade and emerald wax and wane. Eventually they fade and the sky becomes clear and crisp. The stars seem to shine brighter and with more sparkle, as though aware of the spectacle that has just taken place.
Cold now, I turn to go inside with great reluctance, not wanting to miss anything if the lights begin their dance anew. But it seems that, for now at least, their music has stopped.
