Life Needs More Northern Lights

On Friday night, May 10, 2024, my son was outside when he noticed something strange happening in the sky.

He came back inside and said, “Y’all need to come look at the sky.”

I had no idea what was going on.

We went outside, and there it was. The northern lights, right here in Georgia.

And not just a faint glow that a phone camera picked up better than your eyes. We could actually see the colors. Pink. Green. At one point, there was even what looked like a spotlight directly overhead.

The sky was doing some weird things that night, and I was in awe.

I still think about it.

Not because I learned some great life lesson that evening. Not because it changed my life.

It was just one of those moments when something grabs your attention and makes you forget about everything else for a little while.

And I loved it.

I Still Get Excited About Things

I’ve always enjoyed looking up at the sky.

Meteor showers, comets, solar eclipses. If something interesting is going on up there, chances are I’m going to want to see it.

I still get excited when I see a rainbow, too.

I’m 56 years old, and those things can still give me that same feeling I had as a kid.

I like knowing that part of me is still there.

And it isn’t just things happening in the sky.

I can remember the satisfaction of fixing something on a car for the first time and realizing I’d figured it out myself.

I know the feeling of being called Papa for the first time.

Those are completely different experiences, but they all have something in common.

They made me feel something.

Excitement. Satisfaction. Amazement. That warm feeling you get inside when something is just plain good.

You know the feeling I’m talking about.

The Trouble Is, Most Days Aren’t Like That

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.

There just aren’t enough northern lights, meteor showers, and rainbows in life.

Most days don’t come with something that makes us run outside and look at the sky.

Most days are pretty ordinary.

We get up. We do what needs doing. We eat supper. Maybe watch a little television. Go to bed.

Then we get up and do it again.

And I’m not going to tell you that every ordinary day is secretly wonderful if you just look at it the right way.

Some days are simply uneventful.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with them. They just don’t give us much to get excited about.

But I wonder sometimes if I’ve gotten too comfortable waiting for something interesting to happen instead of looking for something interesting to do.

Those aren’t quite the same thing.

I Can’t Make the Northern Lights Appear

I can’t decide that next Tuesday evening would be a good time for another display of the northern lights over Georgia.

And I can’t order up a rainbow whenever I feel like seeing one.

But I can decide to go outside and look for a meteor shower when one is expected.

I can take a drive somewhere I’ve never been.

I can try fixing something myself instead of immediately deciding I can’t do it.

I can pick up an old interest that I’ve let sit for years.

Will any of those things give me the same feeling I had standing outside looking at the northern lights?

Probably not.

And that’s fine.

Maybe the point is simply to give ourselves more opportunities to get interested in something.

Even if it turns out to be nothing special.

I’m Glad My Son Came Inside That Night

There’s one more thing I like about the northern lights story.

If my son hadn’t come inside and told us to look at the sky, I might have missed the whole thing.

I was going about my evening, completely unaware that something remarkable was happening outside.

Sometimes that’s just how life works.

Something interesting comes along when you’re not expecting it.

Other times, you have to go looking.

I suppose I’d like a little more of both.

More evenings when somebody says, “Come look at this.”

And more evenings when I decide there’s something I’d like to go see for myself.

I know there won’t be a rainbow waiting around every corner.

But I’m not going to stop looking for them, either.