How magnificent is a half moon in clear skies rising across the south sky while the aurora plays in the north sky? It’s pretty close to perfect. Especially as the sweetest young couple out with us from England decided to get engaged under this night sky. He knew exactly how perfect the moment was, and even from the distance, each of us were as overjoyed for them as they were. It can be difficult to imagine something so completely breathtaking become even more so, but it happens.
I’m just extremely thankful Kjetil didn’t point out the fox holes I stumbled over numerous times sooner than he did or there would’ve been no way I’d have fought my way through the two feet of snow all over to obtain some of these foregrounds. So thanksverymuch indeed!
I didn’t focus on a photography trip. I let go of travelling through a camera lens for a week, and I may feel a little disappointed in myself for it because there were moments I wanted to share with the world. Skies I wanted to share with the world, and moods I wanted to share with the world, but unfortunately, for you, I’m selfish. Instead of frantically pacing around the centrum during twilight with my tripod frozen to my hands because it’s -15, I just stood back, took a deeper breath than I usually would have and laughed at the perfection of all of it.
I don’t have to tell you about the details of things clicking in my life, I’m absolutely certain I’ve shared enough of that in the past few months to make most of you either physically sick or so jealous you’d sort of want to take my tripod and club me over the head until you felt better. I do want to express immense appreciation for this experience already. Being invited to stay with a family half way across the planet is one of the greatest… blessings, for lack of a better word, I have experienced. It’s the fact Kjetil is my clone in his natural appreciation and love for life, having the experience to chase the aurora for several nights straight from the fade of twilight to the wee hours of the morning is one thing. Really feeling a sense of family with he, his wife, and his two kids is something ten thousand times more meaningful still. It didn’t matter if it was the home cooked meals every single evening, the grocery shopping, the cups of coffee, or Irene – Kjetil’s wife, caring for me on my last evening there when I allowed myself to become physically sick at the thought of leaving Tromso. I actually don’t think I’ve ever been so appreciative in such a short period of time, it really is life changing. It’s just the way you allow yourself to become in life, to expand to that new place whether it’s a country you’ve now been four times or not. It doesn’t matter, because nothing stands still, and perhaps that’s why this all feels so new to me again.
On a side note, I cannot watch the Notebook. Certainly not in public. I’m actually typing this post from 38,000 feet over Greenland and having just finished that movie on my PTV – I’ll tell you I had to pause it more than once to fiddle and focus on anything else but the movie or I probably would’ve flooded our aircraft, and I can’t imagine that would’ve been an ideal scenario. Embarrassing much? And here I am telling you, world. Yeahyeah, I can’t fake me. That’s for sure.
Here's the view from the dinner table... Yeah.
If you’re here to compare posts with previous posts, then it’s probably best to close this window before you read much further. After only a few nights of chasing the northern lights, one of the most important things I’ve learnt is how completely futile it is to compare one evening to another. In fact, not only is it impossible, but it’s really the quickest way to lose the feeling of pure exhilaration that is observing and chasing the aurora borealis. No two displays will ever catch up with one another, and each has it’s own very distinct beauty. This evening was certainly far less dramatic, but it was ridiculously beautiful filled with a certain magic that is, once again, impossible to describe with words from a place of not being directly under the aurora itself.
