Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars

What are you doing in bed when you could be outside under the heavenly stars?

Early this morning, late last night, however you want to look at it, I was outside searching for the Northern Lights again.  I am not exactly sure of what I was seeing, a cold front moving in, Northern Lights or figments of my imagination, but I was lucky enough to be under a sky of twinkling stars.

The older I get, the more I realize just how much of the night sky I have missed!

Of course, in the summer on our camping trips to Grassy Lake and Rattlesnake Dam, we would sit under the stars, near the warmth of a campfire, gazing at their reflections dancing on the lake, but we would retire early so we were able to rise early for our morning fishing adventures, so the late night Northern Light dances were never witnessed.

My eldest son, Derek, at the age of about five, noticed lights dancing in the sky on Christmas Eve, as we were outside looking for reindeer hoof prints in the snow.  He looked up and said, "Hey look, Santa Lights!"  But since then, I never really thought about looking for Northern Lights, except at Christmas time, of course! I have searched for Santa Lights every Christmas Eve since that night!

I never even knew we could see Northern Lights in this area until I met Terri Mappin on-line, a fellow blogger!

A few years ago, on Canada Day, my dog needed to go outside for a bathroom break in the middle of the night, I looked out and to my surprise, I saw Northern Lights dancing high and low and up and down across the sky!  Amazing!

Back then, I hadn't a clue about how to take night photos, and I am still trying to figure that out today! Again, thanks to Terri, I am slowly learning how to take better night shots!  Check out her photos! This week she has posted many, many, many amazing Northern Lights photos!  http://dirtroadsab.blogspot.ca/

Stars have always fascinated me and have always given me a sense of hope.  When I was little, on Christmas night, I used to look outside the front room window in our city home and search for the Star of Bethlehem as family members in the next room visited.

In my younger teaching years, I wrote a play, for my grade four students to perform at a Christmas concert, about my family's Christmas traditions.  The story was about how our family had grown so large and lost the wonder of spending our Christmases together.  I remember certain members grumbling over having to be at my aunt's farm with the family.  That was the last Christmas with my grandma before she suddenly passed away.

In the story, I called my grandma, Grandma Cutie, and I called myself, "Dimples." The ending of the story is about how I missed her and I looked up into the stars and there she was twinkling, looking down at me, smiling and consoling me.

In the story I was a little girl, and she said, "Child, don't be sad.  When ever you feel sad and miss me, look up and I will be looking down for you and smiling.  You will never be alone!"

The stars have always comforted me!

 

One of my favourite movies is Contact, with Jody Foster.  As a little girl, she would gaze at the stars with her dad.  She asks her dad if he thought there were people on other planets.

He replied, "I don't know, Sparks.  But I guess I'd say if it is just us...it seems like an awful waste of space."

Unfortunately, in the story,  her dad dies when she is a little girl.  When she grows older, she gets the opportunity to go into space.  There is a  scene when she thinks she sees and visits with her dad.  It is so beautiful, I sob and weep until my eyes are clean dry.  You know the kind of crying you do when the back of your throat is constricted and you can barely breathe?  Yeah, that's the kind I cry when I see the scene.

The white, whether it be clouds or dancing lights in these pictures,  reminds me of open arms reaching out to give universal hugs.  

I have missed many years of  these delightful star filled skies, sleep being more precious than photographs, especially with a full time job and young children.

Now that my children are older, and I have finally found my dream job of teaching precious little grade ones with imaginations galore, and believing in magic and wonder, I have now found time to enjoy the night skies!

I suppose I am glad about having missed the night skies in my younger years, as I am now more able to appreciate what I see and am grateful for each day that I get to discover new entities of our beautiful world!

I had to change the lyrics to "Little stars" , instead of "Little Star", as I didn't want to leave any star out, upsetting them and then getting a real down pour of rain!

Well, that is enough for tonight.  A big universal hug to you all, may your dreams come true and I hope you feel you are never alone...

Time for bed...

Or shall  I go star gazing and Northern Lights searching?


Hmmmmmmmm......