Aurora Borealis

Despite my somewhat childish hopes for a better life, my life is not perfect right now. The cause of my dissatisfaction at the moment is the continued lack of someone in my life who is willing to forego all worldly comfort to appreciate natural beauty with me. You see, I live now in an area of the world where the Aurora Borealis is almost a nightly occurrence. Right now, there are lights in the sky that defy imagination and inspire me with all kinds of feelings and thoughts. But, as has always been the case, I'm torn between being with my desire to be outside until the show's over (probably tomorrow morning) and returning to the human world that everyone I care about inhabits. Currently, the people who occupy the largest slices of my mind and heart are my wife and son and a couple of my friends. None of them would actually wake up or stay awake long enough to go out into a dark field with me right now (at 20 minutes to 1 AM) to lie in the cold just to watch some beautiful lights in the sky. This does not make me love them any less. I know that my wish to lie in the grass until frost forms on me so that I don't miss a moment of some flashing green and purple lights in the sky is a strange and possibly insane wish. But I can't help it.
This desire to take in Nature drives me in all kinds of things-not the least of which is photography. But I know that I could search through piles of millions of people without finding a single one that would be willing to sit until his/her hands are so cold they've stopped hurting just to watch a seal on a beach in February. I've never known anyone who has fallen asleep because 3 AM is just too late to be lying in the undergrowth looking up through the canopy to watch the stars march across the sky.
There is a hole in my experience caused by an aloneness in this pursuit of observation and I doubt that it will ever be filled. Once again, I must heed the call of my tired eyes and drag my attention back down to Earth. I know it will be absolutely wonderful to lie down next to my beautiful, sleeping, soft, warm, pregnant wife. I know that I will smile and sigh contentedly when I do so. but tearing myself away from the sky is a tough thing to do tonight.