Seeing the Lights

Ever wake and immediately try to find the amazing photos or videos you took in your dream?

I’ve wanted to see the Aurora forever. That, and a total solar eclipse, were my first bucket list items, long before I’d any idea what a bucket list was.

For the solar eclipse in 2017, I went to an abandoned cement factory in Oregon. It was fantastic.

I’ve also tried chasing Northern Lights several times, with my most concerted effort being a trip to Iceland in 2019.

But even on the clearest night, I only saw green so faint I thought I might be imagining it. Setting my phone to overexpose, more to confirm than anything, I did indeed capture a barely-there green glow. Not what I was expecting. Someday, though.

In other weird obsessions, I moved to New England this past week. I’ve got several reasons, some more reasonable than others. For one, I’ll be on the eclipse path April 8th, and I’m dearly hoping for clear weather.

And I have to admit I’ve hoped the extra latitude could give me better odds of the Aurora dipping down my way. Last night I’d checked the forecast just before going to bed. Just in case.

Then I saw a dancing purple glow out my window. Forgetting the cold and my joint pain, I ran outside to find an unbelievable display of light, pulsating with multiple colors.

But also… shapes?! Giant sea anemone on one side of the sky and jellyfish dancing across the other! How could this POSSIBLY be a natural phenomenon? I took a few videos on my phone, wishing I hadn’t put my old camera in storage before this trip.

Still, the videos were vivid, sharp, and wide enough to capture the whole sky. And somehow they even featured a little Daft Punk music in the background. And just before the sky went dark, I caught the video I hoped to share with you all.

But this morning, when normal daylight poured through my windows, that amazing clip was gone.

So I’ll just have to tell you about it. Right in the middle of my celestial sea creatures, a robot-Buddha had materialized, its metallic voice singing out words I couldn’t clearly understand as they echoed through the night. Had I found the video, I’m sure now what they would have been:

Work it harder, make it better
Do it faster, makes us stronger
More than ever, hour after hour
Work is never over

Daft Punk, and the robot Buddha in the sky, apparently

It took me a moment to realize why it wasn’t on my camera roll.

Still, while this one might have also been inspired by work stress and Sponge Bob, and as silly as it was, I love it when my night dreams help keep my life dreams going. I’ll see the aurora for real one day, and even without dancing jellies? I’ll be prepared with a great playlist. 🎶