Iceland^[1]!

And, on our first night, we saw the northern lights!

It was not what I expected. It was not what I expected to experience. I thought if they appeared they would be wild and bright and you couldn’t miss them just by looking at the wrong area of the sky.

When we went out to see them, the color was not visible to my eyes. There was a weak green glow a little like the feeling of queasy you get the morning after a glass of chianti^[2]. It almost looked like light green chalk scribbled across the sky by a child using the starry night as a sidewalk. I took out my silly, cheap cell phone to see if I was going to be able to capture anything on it. The camera, knowing my lack of skills in photography, offered to go on night mode.

I said sure. How could it be worse than my understanding of the settings?

And… look!

What the picture shows, I didn’t see^[3]. There was one incredible moment where I saw what appeared to be a shooting star, but it was only one and I might have dreamed it^[4] –  A shooting star of purple, green, pink, and gold. It caught me off guard and anyway, it lasted less than 5 seconds. 

The magic I did see, with my eyes out in the countryside of Iceland, was people respectfully sharing an awesome viewing location. There are 10 rooms in the Guesthouse where we are staying, and I heard four languages that night: Icelandic, German, Italian and English^[5]. And, in truth, had the very nice Italian woman not been so excited about the lights, I probably wouldn’t have known to point my camera to the sky and take a chance. I wouldn’t have known that I should be seeing the northern lights dance across the sky.

I realized that there is a riddle here, if I can bear to hear it^[6]. I only saw what I wanted to see with help^[7]. Maybe if you actually live in Iceland, or Alaska, you get better at seeing them without the aid of a camera. Maybe seeing them regularly trains your eyes to see the magic in the sky.

On the second night, still at the Guesthouse^[8] out in the countryside, we again saw the Northern Lights^[9]! But this time, we could see the green shining in the sky. In a strange twist, my camera did not help the second night. I find this picture less amazing than the first one:

I found the lights the second night MORE amazing. It was very cold, so we didn’t stay out long. However, to see the glowing green with a naked eye was a gift I did not expect. Sometimes help helps. The next time I will have learned and not need so much help?

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^[1] We made it!

^[2] Which I also got a chance to experience on this trip.

^[3] At least I didn’t see it the time I looked.

^[4] See reference to chianti above.

^[5] I only really understood the English. And a bit of the Italian.

^[6] This is a reference to the book, Harpist in the Wind, by Patricia McKillip.

^[7] Help from my camera. Help from the very excited Italian mom speaking rapidly to her children about what they were seeing.

^[8] https://lambastadir.is/ — I highly recommend it for a few nights.

^[9] Yay!