An Engagement complete with Northern Lights

One summer, a friend and I finished a long day of hiking by getting cleaned up and going to eat at one of the original resorts on the North Shore -- Lutsen Resort.  After dinner, people usually head down to their broad rock beach on the shores of Lake Superior to watch the waves lap in.  However, on that night, we had heard that the Northern Lights were to be visible -- but in the opposite direction of the lake.

We were the only ones who had turned our adirondack chairs to face the lodge, and once our eyes adjusted, the Northern Lights were dancing in luminous greens and reds across the northern sky.  It is truly a sight to try to describe!

A few people pondered what we were watching and we directed them to look up and see.  Then a young couple, who seemed rather dreamy, inquired with a very Southern accent.  Once they understood what they were seeing, they got even dreamier with each other.  After a long, awkward pause the young lady excitedly exclaimed to us, "This is just soooo perfect... I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights because I'm a teacher in Georgia and have never seen them...and also because we just got engaged!".  The young man swiftly took his flashlight to shine on the ring that had just been slipped on her finger.  We were the first to know their news!  It truly was perfect and is such a joy to see God swirling colors in the sky as if in celebration.  

If you have never seen the Northern Lights, a.k.a. Aurora Borealis, from your own home, the North Shore is a great place to possibly see them.  They are only visible in the Northern Hemisphere and the likelihood of seeing Aurora Borealis increases with its closer proximity to the magnetic North Pole.  Their colorful swirls and streaks in the sky are produced by the collision of charged particles coming from the sun moving through earth's atmosphere.  The North Shore's dark skies will enhance the vividness of the Northern Lights if they are on show in the night sky because there is little or no light pollution.  To learn more, check out this website that has good information about the Northern Lights, Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

So don't miss the next time the Northern Lights or other cosmic wonders may be happening in the wee hours of a dark night by checking out this website, SpaceWeather.com, as they post information about upcoming events and activities in the heavens -- perhaps you could even help plan an engagement complete with Northern Lights, too!