I'm sitting at my desk today with not much to do. It's Friday and I've already had all my appointments for the day. It's Carly's birthday but her supervisors let her go early so it is just me in the office (Fulbright teaching fellow wise, that is). My supervisors, George and Lilian, are both busy. George is surfing the web; Lilian is talking to one of her students about where he is applying to college. It's peaceful so I have the time to open an email from my mom, labelled 'The beauty of our earth' and a comment saying, you're going to love these pics. So I began scrolling and of course, I was hooked. I stumbled upon a photograph of the Northern Lights and yet again, I was in awe of its beauty. There aren't many places I go in my life where I leave knowing that I will do everything in my power to return to. In fact, I can only think of one place before last week I knew I would back it back to and that was Greece. But after seeing that little town called Tromso nestled up in the Arctic Circle and viewing the lights for the first time, I knew I was not going to be satisfied until I experienced the lights again in all of their beauty. It's been one week since my first lights spotting and I already spent the better part of today searching airfare in case I could get a good deal to go back. Not that I have the funds for that right now so realistically, I was only day dreaming.
But the point is... I cannot stop thinking about their beauty. The magical circles and swooshes they made as they danced together high up in the sky. The feeling of pure joy I felt when spotting them for the first time, even though my first sighting was only a mere outline. It's a funny feeling knowing that this magical show is put on by our universe alone. It was not created by man nor has man purposefully altered their performance. It is ever-changing and moves to the beat of its own rhythm. And its in this beauty that you begin to question your thoughts and actions up until this point. It brings a new meaning of beauty, one that cannot be bought and a new understanding of your place in the world, which is so much smaller than we remember. It also reminds you of how grateful you should be for the life that you have. Or very simple, for life. However, standing there, under those beaming lights, you know how very special, very rare it is that one experiences the lights in all their beauty or even, at all. You know that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you need to soak in every second of its beauty. But there's also something so much more than that about these Northern Lights, something that I haven't grasped yet. And there's also a magnetic pole of sorts; once you see them, you feel a burning passion to see them again in all their beauty. And even though, you know that seeing these beautiful lights is only ever supposed to be a once in a lifetime opportunity, you hope and pray that maybe if you are lucky and try hard enough, you'll see them light up the sky once more in those beautiful green and purple tones dancing the night away.