Flawed Northern Lights

 When I told my mother I was going to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights, she thought I would die of cold. This was more from her knowledge of my poor cold tolerance than from a belief that all the people who live in the Arctic Circle are dead.

While I myself was worried that I would freeze, and Mark was convinced I would complain frequently about how cold I was, I insisted we go because I saw great beauty even in the concept of the Aurora Borealis.

The Northern [and Southern] Lights exist because of solar wind's interactions with Earth's magnetic fields, which protect us from the harmful charged particles. The "weak" area in our magnetosphere is at the poles, so that's where we see the Auroras.

Basically, one of the most beautiful nature displays on Earth is due to vulnerability. I find that profound.

What I did not realize is that seeing the Northern Lights is more of a chase/hunt than something you show up and see. We saw the aurora our first night hunting, because our tour guide drove all over looking for a break in the sky, and because we were fortunate, but it was pretty faint. I could see faded changing green lights, but it was more vivid with long-exposure cameras. Not what I was anticipating, but I did realize we were working with a very small patch of clear sky.

Our second attempt was much different, primarily in its level of tediousness. We had beautifully clear sky and could see more of the Milky Way than I had ever seen in my life...but staring at it for 6 hours in the cold, no aurora in sight, was a bit draining. Though when I say "in sight", I should clarify that there was an auroral glow in the distance if you used long-exposure cameras, but not to the naked eye. To pass the time, we learned a bit about the other people in the tour group--people from China, Germany, Italy, England, New York. But I was still checking my watch every hour, wondering if time passes slower in lower temperatures. Somewhere in there, I told God that I realized he was under no obligation to show me the aurora, but that it was symbolically important to me as a demonstration that weaknesses can be strengths, which I knew he was behind because Paul [in Corinthians] and Nephi [in the Book of Mormon] and Moroni [ditto] and even Jesus [in Doctrine and Covenants] taught it. 

At midnight, most of the group had returned to the bus, and I was hanging out trying to get a good picture of the Milky Way [ie ask the guide with the good camera to do it for me] when suddenly a bright streak stretched across the sky. I saw mostly white, because it was so brilliant, but there were hues of red and green in there if you were Mark or a camera. The streak changed into an undulating curtain of light, more strokes of white, and even (at one point) a giant penguin across the sky, and it was beautiful, and I cried. Yes, this was what I had wanted--a representation of God's love for me, a culmination of hopes and prayers, a display of how stunning flaws can be.

So go out there and be phenomenal. The most fragile spot in Earth's magnetic field is open to the sun, and that, my friends, causes the beauty.