~ Kit Holmes 9/23/2023 www.kitholmesinc.com
This past Monday, September 18, I was following a series of posts in a social media group about the solar activity that was creating highly favorable conditions for the Northern Lights - the Aurora Borealis - to make a decent showing Monday night or early Tuesday morning. I’m kind of a geek when it comes to phenomena like this. I grew up “up north” but had never seen the lights until I was in my late twenties. That first show was all it took to hook me with an added sense of awe and wonder about the night sky I already loved. Since then, I’ve always found myself scanning the northern skies after dark on the off-chance Lady Aurora might come out for a dance. Until a couple of years ago, I didn’t know there was such a thing as Northern Light forecasting. There are apps for that now, of course, with a lot of scientific terminology I’m just barely beginning to understand. The bottom line is all that data still doesn’t guarantee a showing.That’s part one of this discussion: just because we think we know all we need to know about a thing doesn’t guarantee a desired outcome. In other words, we don’t have as much control over stuff as we’d like to think. Over the past year I'd been trying to figure out how to use my smart phone to photograph all the Super Moons we’ve had. Even after watching how-to YouTube videos, I’d still just end up with a lot of pictures of fuzzy, whitish blobs on a dark background. In this case, I didn’t know enough about something to achieve a desired outcome. I'm so glad I never really lost my sense of curiosity, despite the negative messaging I recieved early on for asking too many (of the "wrong") questions. Just after sunset on Monday night, I headed to the beach and started playing around with the camera settings on my phone and there in the twilight, things began to click. (Yes. The pun was intentional), just in time for the show! The thing about the auroras is that unless there’s an intense geomagnetic storm happening or you’re at a high enough latitude your eyes will only see faint colors, if any at all. But the camera will see all of it when set on a long exposure time. In my willingness to keep asking questions, exploring and seeking understanding I learned some new things – even if I wasn’t guaranteed a certain outcome. But being willing to stand on the sands of Lake Michigan in the dark on a chilly night, remaining open to whatever light might come forth proved to be a highly rewarding choice. You see where I’m going with this, right? Doing deep inner healing work is much like forecasting the aurora: easier said than done. But what I’ve learned is that when I surrender my false sense of control to the over-arching power of Love, things begin to unfold in ways that leave no doubt something cosmic is taking place. The profound sense of awe, wonder and peace that follows is breathtaking. And so is the celestial clarity about who I am and what I'm here to do. I wish having this kind of an experience meant that I could just kick back and say, “I’ve arrived! I’m enlightened! I saw the light(s), I got the pics, I’m complete!” Well, I suppose I could, but I've learned experiences like this are just the beginning of the next awesome adventure. I think we humans live in an incredible paradox: We are imbued with a divine urge to explore and express - which when allowed, often leads to experiences of awesome healing and wonderous growth. But our egos (also original factory-installed equipment) want to control it all – which when allowed to will inevitably squash the hell out of awe and wonder. I have chased the Northern Lights numerous times. Most of those times the astronomical conditions, the weather, and my geographical location didn’t line up in “my” favor to see them. But I show up for the night sky anyway. There is invariably something good to be discovered by pointing a light (or a smart phone) toward the darkness. On this day of Equinoxes (Autumnal or Vernal, depending on which hemisphere you live), I wish you a healthy balance of dark and light, known and unknown (and unknowable). And I’ll leave you with some of the lyrics from the song that has been playing in my head for the past few days:
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger May you never take one single breath for granted God forbid love ever leave you empty handed I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance I hope you dance... I hope you dance... “I Hope You Dance” Words and music by Mark D. Sanders and Tia Sillers, recorded by Lee Ann Womack Peace, Love and Light(s) I love you all dearly, Kit
These are just a few of the photos I took. Yes, the Big Dipper was really in the middle of them all!
Celestial Healing and Northern Light photos © 2023, Kit Holmes