Glory

The Aurora Borealis.  The Cree's Dance of the Spirits.  A collision of energy.  Aurora--goddess of the dawn.  Boreas--Greek for North Wind.

This strange, magnetic beauty has pulled me to its center since I first saw it illustrated in my 6th grade science textbook.  It is the cause of my desire to live in Alaska for one year.  I want to rent our house in CT, take a job in an Eskimo pub, and look for the lights, the glory.  Unlikely, but it's a beautiful thing to exercise the freedom to dream.

One of my former students would draw on a blank white page, slashing colors everywhere with no apparent goal.  When she deemed the masterpiece was finished, she would look up with a wild eye of joy and say, "Glory!!"  Her father, a theologian who transformed my understanding of God, often spoke of the glory of God---the ultimate vision we will attain in heaven.

Oh glory, glory, glory.  I can find You in the locust tree.  I can find you in my child's face.  But a world lit up with green and purple!?  Let me live underneath your glow.