Talk about an epic surprise this morning! Before our run at 5am I poked my head out the door and looked to the north. As luck would have it, the Northern Lights were dancing all around the horizon!
As we can the first two miles I kept stopping to take pictures while also running with my eyes focused on the sky. Gigantic monoliths of light shot up through the sky like a spotlight and then slowly faded. The dark reds and purples were so bright they were clearly visible by the naked eye.
In a bit of cosmic coincidence they started to fade as we got to our turn around point. The majority of our run on the way back was heading south, which felt okay as the Northern Lights dissipated and the eastern horizon slowly lit up a little.
While I keep an active dream list (119 strong currently) one thing I’d never thought of adding to it was “Go for a run under the Northern Lights.” Now that I’ve done it I realize how epic of a dream that would have been, one that would have been almost impossible to accomplish. We just happened to luck out in this case – an opportunity to knock out a dream I didn’t know I even had until I was in the midst of accomplishing it!
I’m a slow but sure learner sometimes. Over the past handful of vacations I always plan on organizing my photos and videos but it often doesn’t happen. This means that while there’s a pile of memory starters there is also a big pile of near duplicate photos to be deleted.
On our flight back today I focused on cleaning up my photos. They’re all sorted by day, in chronological order, and with the near duplicates and photo fails deleted. Took some songs today but will save a ton of time in the future.
Appreciation:
One of the biggest reasons for heading to Iceland was to see the Northern Lights. The odds of doing so are spotty at best, even in the best of conditions. The clouds fought us the majority of the nights and when it was clear the Aurora Borealis was too shy and stayed away.
Last night while sitting in the hot tub I pulled up the forecast as we looked up at the stars. According to the Aurora app we had an exactly 1% chance of seeing them. Steve laughed and quoted the line from Dumb & Dumber, “so you’re saying there’s a chance!”
After some games we all started to close out our nights. On a whim I decided to walk outside and check one more time. As I turned to the north I was rewarded with a ribbon of light rippling across the sky. I ran inside, grabbed Gavin & Steve, and headed out to enjoy the show.
The really big lights didn’t last very long and some clouds moved in, but we’d accomplished our goal and beaten the 1 in 100 odds.
My dreams were very intense afterwards. Much of it was a reminder to me of the dangers of taking on too much. It reminded me of the importance of saying no more often, of slowing down, and remembering to stay focused on what’s really important to me. It was so intense I woke up in a sweat at 4:41 am.
When I got up I looked out my window and was so shocked at what I saw I didn’t trust myself to wake everyone right away. I quietly snuck out of the house and saw tendrils of light stretching through the night!
I woke everyone up and we spent well over an hour in astonishment and joy watching the lights. We took photos, we just looked up in awe, and enjoyed every single minute until it started to dwindle. I’m still awestruck at what we witnessed.
I am so grateful for our luck and our timing.
Presence:
Last night and again early this morning as we watched the Northern Lights there was a very specific moment I’ll remember forever. Amongst the spectacular light show Gavin put an arm around me and pulled me in close. “We did it! Thanks for bringing me to Iceland!” You betcha buddy, happy to have created these memories with you.
Thankful for Forty 