The Northern Lights

In Alabama?

Did you know about the Northern Lights and their descent across the U.S.? We certainly didn’t. Not until Maggie, Morgan’s sister, told us the night sky was purple.

It was Friday night and that means the whole family piles onto the couch to watch a movie. It was late, 9:30pm or so, when Maggie got the text that the sky was purple. That’s when Morgan remembered a neighbor telling her that the Northern Lights would be visible as far south as Alabama that night. The Northern Lights? in Alabama? Surely not. I ran outside and stared at the night sky. We live in Huntsville and while it’s not a major city, it still produces plenty of light pollution. I wasn’t sure what to expect. At first, I didn’t see anything. Then, on the horizon, behind some trees, I could barely see a pink tint to the sky. And then on the other side of the sky, I could decipher a slight blue tint in the sky. And then I saw something strange. It was like a streak of fog across the sky. A white line that was stretcheded across the sky. It was faint and there were multiple. And then they were gone. This got me excited. I took my phone out and snapped a couple pictures.

At this point I was giddy. The movie was almost over when we abruptly stopped it to go outside and look at the sky. I was no longer interested in the movie and only interested in getting out of the city and to the country, away from the city lights. Thankfully the two oldest kids and Morgan were on board. Maggie stayed back to let Wilder (1yo) stay asleep and put our 4 year old, who wasn’t interested, down to bed after the movie. Thanks Maggie!

So it was four of us. Morgan, myself, and our two oldest. Sometimes it is nice to be just us four. My first memories of feeling like a family were when it was just us four. And Moose.

Circa 2018.

We piled into our van along with some blankets and headed to the Paint Rock Valley. We could feel the energy in the night air. We were all excited for what awaited.

We got to the farm, cut off the van lights and looked up. It was a perfectly clear night. The stars were marvelous. Where the sky met the mountains you could see shades of blue and pink. It was faint but it was clear. The cameras on our phones captured the lights much better than what our eyes could see. We laid on a blanket and stared up. We found constellations, saw shooting stars, and tried to ignore the spooky sounds coming from a distance. It was fun and spontaneous. It was a moment. And a memory for later mining.

The next day I had a lot of physical work planned… at the farm of all places. I knew I would be waking up around 6am. I had to battle staying present and avoid the temptation to rush. We got home around 11:30pm and in bed after midnight.

I never thought I’d check off seeing the Northern Lights while in Alabama. But I did.