Northern Lights

 

Those joys were so small that they passed unnoticed, like gold in sand, and at bad moments she could see nothing but the pain, nothing but sand; but there were good moments too when she saw nothing but the joy, nothing but gold.

Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina


Last night brilliant splashes of green and red waved gently in the black night sky like curtains in a breeze. They say the northern lights were visible all the way down into the southern United States. I find this ironic since I am visiting Anchorage Alaska where people see the Aurora Borealis frequently. I missed it. I am choosing to believe the show was hidden by cloud cover here, because I would rather not believe that I missed seeing something spectacular only because I was snuggled deep under the covers.

Life is like that. I am often oblivious to cosmic dances of joy. Oblivious because I can't see past my local clouds. I miss them because my eyes are shut or because I don't want to leave the comfort of my warm blankets.

Beautiful realities fill the sky whether my eyes are open to them or not.

A man who moved here a couple of years ago told us about an experience on a boardwalk near town that winds through reedy marshes near Cook Inlet. He was there, walking his dogs, and came across an energized knot of people peering through cameras with giant lenses attached. "What are you seeing?" Ian asked. "Birds! Don't you see them? There, and there, and there!" He didn't see. Veteran bird watchers did.

When the blind man cried out to Jesus, Jesus stopped. He asked "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mark 10:46 - 52)

He cried out, and I cry out too, "Rabbi, I want to see!"

Seeing

I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But--and this is the point--who gets excited by a mere penny? ...It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with you poverty brought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.

--Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

About a month ago my youngest daughter and I drove through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to her college in Washington. Along the way we enjoyed beautiful landscapes, rich conversation, and laughter. We didn't see a single antelope. A few days after I helped her get settled in her dorm room, my husband flew up to Spokane and drove back home with me.

Along the way he spotted antelope everywhere, hundreds of them grazing in fields, standing in groups or alone, silhouetted against the blue sky. How could so many antelope magically materialize where just days before there had been none? The problem was not with the antelope, but with my ability to see them. Clearly, I wasn't really looking. There was nothing wrong with my eyes, only with the way I used them. I needed my husband to say, "There! Down in the valley, don't you see them?"  And then I did.

Life is like that. We must learn to see. We must help each other see. God strews our way with hidden gifts, but finding them is up to us.