“Suddenly it’s just there. From void to magnificence. Without a sound. Mysterious. Brilliant. Mythical. Dancing. We realize our insignificance when we lift our gaze towards space and it fills with billowing silent cascades of colour. Then. From magnificence to void. We lower our gaze. Look upon our surroundings again. In reverence. In silence. Fascinated by what we just witnessed.”
It was getting late and I felt the chill of autumn on my face as I walked outside. Out of habit I looked around to check that everything in the area was in good order. Suddenly I see something that resembles thin grey vails peeking up behind the roof of the garage. I move a bit to the side to get a better look. The vague mist winds around the back of the house. I turn the corner, stand in the middle of the yard and gaze out over the river to see where the mist is coming from. The sky is pitch-black, the stars shining like diamonds. The grey mist ever so slowly sweeps across the sky in thin pulsating strips. Like a game of hide and seek.
Suddenly, like magic, the mist changes colour, begins to move faster. Undulating. Dancing. Swirling. Like a purebred earning to break loose – out, to untethered freedom. Without warning, the sky explodes into a magnificent glowing green aurora that stretches from west to east and far off in the distance disappears in a funnel of colour. I stand absolutely still, but feel my head turning left and right at a frenzied pace.
What a show! I was born and raised up here in the north but have never seen anything like this ever before. An unforgettable dance of the northern lights that autumn evening in October last year.
