Have you ever seen the Northern Lights?

Have you ever been up north? 
The Kola Peninsula, where my childhood was spent, is located in the area where you can gaze at the polar night and the polar day.
In fact, the polar day is a natural phenomenon occurring in summer months at latitudes north and nearby to the Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle, where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. Given fair weather, the sun is visible for a continuous 24 hours. The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This occurs only inside the polar circles. 
Even though we hadn’t had completely the polar night, we had the polar day but without sun at the night time. Can you imagine bright nights? Oh, we loved the summer time because of that a lot. There was a joke: “We have a good summer. Even though it’s short, but bright nights and a little snow make it wonderful”.
Have you ever seen the northern lights?  The northern lights are one of several astronomical phenomena also called the polar lights. It is an incredible color dance across the night sky. 
I remember when I saw the polar lights for the first time. It was in 1976 and I was ten years-old. 
What about that day?  It was a late winter evening. The town was sleeping under a white snow blanket. Our five-floor houses stood in a circle and formed a large area where children could be seen playing by their parents. In fact, the arrangement of the buildings was designed to resist the constant strong winds in that region. My friends and I were playing in the courtyard. One of us noticed the northern lights on the horizon. They were moving and slowly approached us. When they floated above us, we all laid down on the snow to watch the spectacular view. We were surrounded by an incredible silence; all we could hear was our breath and heart beats. Sometimes we felt a cold breeze, but we didn’t feel cold because we always dressed warm.  My fur coat protected me very well. While I was lying on the snow, I thought that my life was infinite just as the sky was. I was thinking about the distant future. I thought that by the year 2000 I would be 34, and I thought I would have 2 children, like my mom, I would be older than my mom was, and in front of me all of eternity.
The northern lights stood above of us for a while, waved their wings a couple of times, and slowly dissolving into the night sky. We were amazed. We continued to lie on the snow, and quietly pondered our lives.

Have you ever been up north? How far? Have you ever seen the northern lights?  If your answer is “Yes, I’ve seen them”, count your blessings. You are never going to forget it.

Comments are always welcome :-)