aurora

been watching the Northern Lights the last 3 nights. You may also know this occurrence by its other nomenclature such as the “aurora”, the “aurora borealis”, or simply…“the lights.” It’s a pretty spiritual thing to watch these waves of bright light dance on the cold night sky, twisting, twirling, bulging and glowing among twinkling stars and snowcapped mountains. The lights bulge with intensity and then fade, sometimes lasting for hours, other times as quickly as a few minutes. At first you simply think to yourself…Hey, where’s that light behind the mountains coming from, what’s going on over there? You see, it’s a strange thing to see new lights on the horizon here, especially when not coming from due south. Light pollution is still pretty minute; so a backlit mountain range to the north throws you off kilter a bit. But then all of a sudden you realize, oh yeah, nothing up that direction for the next 300 plus miles, the lights must be going off!

It’s pretty weird at first, but then you just stand there dumbfounded and awestruck, silent in the winter night, staring up towards the heavens in silent unknowing praise. It’s so quiet at this point, I mean so deafeningly blank, that you can hear your heartbeat as you breath in and out trying to take in this glorious site…that is until everyone seems to oooh, ahhh and hoot all at the same time.

It’s a pretty beautiful thing, the northern lights. In this age of scientific explanations for everything, answers to supposedly all our problems, and a technology to remedy any malady…there’s still something that’s so spiritual and perplexingly mystical about this world. Science can explain the how, and possibly the what; but there’s no way anyone will ever prove the why. Why do the northern lights happen and what’s the point? Yes it’s electromagnetic fields; yes it’s photons from solar flare periods reacting with those fields; but why? No one knows, and I think its best that it has stayed that way. There’s too many answers for everything in our world and sometimes it’s still good to have a faith and belief that there’s still something special out there.

Update

Whoa, it’s been a while since I’ve updated. I can’t type much because I have to go work at Sherrod Elementary for a bit but I will quickly post some pictures. Needless to say, Erin and I had a great honeymoon in Jackson, Wyoming. It’s a place of great natural beauty and of beautiful people as well (as soon as you get below the surface façade of recreation industrial tourism). We had a great time snowboarding, saw some amazing artwork, enjoyed the classic Americana of Wyoming and the conversations with many a local residents.

These pictures are from my camera. We didn’t take many because, well, we were having fun. Erin has some great pictures, a lot better than mine, but I haven’t downloaded them yet. Maybe I’ll put them up some other time.

Erin bootpacking lower Moran

Same caption as above
Resting in the sun after attempt at the boulder section
Hiking up to hit some fluffy pillows!