Heaven's eyes

Alberta skies are awesome for 3 glorious reasons: sunsets, stars, and the northern lights.

My parents house is in the country just outside of a small city. It's fairly flat, and there are no skyscrapers or bright city lights to block the view.

When the sun sets, it takes nearly an hour. It creates a completely different tapestry each evening as the last rays of light bounce off the clouds. It is simply breath-taking.

Then, as the sky darkens, the stars appear. On a clear night, you can see thousands of stars. Each night they remind me that it's the same big sky here as it was in Florida, Spain, Idaho, Israel, Hawaii or France. I often looked for the familiar constellations on my travels, and still do here at home.

The other night, I was driving to Edmonton when I looked out and realized that I was surrounded by a celestial masterpiece! To the south (my left) the sky was filled with clear, sparkling stars, most prominently Orion. He's my favorite constellation and seems to watch over me on my adventures :) To the north (my right) the sky seemed to be on fire with the dancing green glow of aurora borealis, the northern lights. It has been years since I have seen the northern lights so bright, and I was beginning to think we couldn't see them from here anymore. But there they were, as beautiful and awe-inspiring as I had remembered.

Not my pic, but that's pretty much what it looked like.

I feel so blessed to witness such incredible natural phenomena! I feel so tiny and yet so loved and completely significant all at once while standing quietly beneath the gorgeous sky. I have so many fond memories of sunsets, starry skies, northern lights and shooting stars...

Every so often, the romantic in me will wish on a star, imagining that somewhere out there, someone else is looking up and wishing for the same thing. But most of the time I just soak in the very personal moments of magic, relish in the wonder of our world, and marvel at the great wisdom of the one who created it all.