This past Friday was rather exhausted. Bishop Callahan, the Bishop of my Diocese, asked me to celebrate three Confirmation Masses for him. Having finished the first of these three Masses in two days, my body told me to go to bed. Yes, I had heard all day from friends that the Northern Lights (aurora) were going to be spectacular. Still, I felt a need to pace myself with the heavier than usual workload.
As I was winding down for the evening, I decided to check my Facebook page. The first post that showed up on my newsfeed was from my uncle Jeff Kurzynski.
“Just look up! Go outside and just look up!”
This simple and direct post was accompanied by his images of the aurora. “Wow!” I uttered under my breath. What was my next thought?
“If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right.”
I grabbed my camera, a couple lenses, my tripod and made my way out of town about 20 minutes. Needless to say, I was very, very happy I didn’t listen to my inner common sense. I let my love of the night sky rule my decisions that evening/morning. Now, it goes without saying that the images and videos below are more dramatic than what I saw – I did some creative editing. However, the emotion and joy these images evoke accurately reflect what I experience that evening: Awe and Wonder!
Similar to my reflection at the total solar eclipse retreat, there are many ways to explain auroras. One can explain them as the relationship between solar winds and atmosphere. From the standpoint of personal experience, the explanations can range from seeing animals, angels or tie-dye dance in the wispy bands of light.
What I experienced was a moment of peace, wonder, joy and decompression from the work I had done. In the spirit of my previous post, I felt that God was at play with me, and God was inviting me to participate in the game. It also reminded me of a quote I have shared with you before from John Muir.
The winter stars far surpassed those of our stormy Scotland in brightness, and we gazed and gazed as though we had never seen stars before. Oftentimes the heavens were made still more glorious by auroras, the long lance rays, called “Merry Dancers” in Scotland, streaming with startling tremulous motion to the zenith. Usually the electric auroral light is white or pale yellow, but in the third or fourth of our Wisconsin winters there was a magnificently colored aurora that was seen and admired over nearly all the continent. The whole sky was draped in gracious purple and crimson folds glorious beyond description. Father called us out into the yard in front of the house where he had a wide view, crying, “Come! Come, mother! Come, bairns! and see the glory of God. All the sky is clad in a robe of red light. Look straight up to the crown where the folds are gathered. Hush and wonder and adore, for surely this is the clothing of the Lord Himself, and perhaps He will even now appear looking down from his high heaven.” This celestial show was far more glorious than anything we had ever yet beheld, and throughout that wonderful winter hardly anything else was spoken of. (John Muir: Natural Writings. Edited by William Cronon. p.99-100)
Did you see the aurora? What was your experience? What did you see? What did you feel? Did God play with you? Did you join in the game? Share your thoughts below.
