From Light ... Shadow

  Did you ever notice how things can reach you in small increments on so many different levels? Before coming to the north I knew that the light or lack of light would have a powerful effect on me. I knew  that on some level before I left home ....perhaps just on a head level. What that would do to my system I could not really wrap my brain around. 

You see, I'm one of those people who gets giddy-dizzy and blown away at the sight of a full moon when it is like a big yellow globe hanging in the sky above the Milford Haven River. The noon day sun in Guysborough on a bright winter's day when you can't buy a cloud for love nor money sends my energy level through the roof. The evening sun at suppertime in August makes me melancholy and happy at the same time (especially if it is setting on the waters of Chedabucto Bay) Watching the the first star of the evening appear over the crest of the hills of Sunnyville can leave  me frozen in time.

Nothing prepared me for what it feels like to watch the days  gradually lengthen to a point where there is no night...It was more than 6 weeks since I saw the moon and a sky dark enough to see stars. When it is brighter at 3:00 AM than it is at noon time at home, or when you look out the window and see children casually riding bicycles or playing with paddle boats in puddles at 10:30 PM, it messes with your mind a little. Seeing a snowmobile race up a steep mountainside at 3:00 AM is another experience I'd never had before. 

The sky of the Arctic is magical. It effects one's emotions, lifestyle, behavior and health. The charm and magic of the Aurora  Borealis gives way to the strength and power of the midnight sun which so quickly alters the northern landscape. It causes a change in the sound of the earth too. We begin to hear the sound of birds once again. The Duval River goes from a whispering trickle to a powerful roar in a matter of 3 weeks. The ice on Cumberland sound starts to show dangerous leaks as the snow machines continue to maneuver their way around the ice chunks and out to the fishing holes and hunting haunts.

These images will stay with me forever as will the shock of returning to NS at night....you see, the light of the Arctic came gently over the past five weeks; it was like falling in love with a gentle soul so gradually you hardly noticed that there was a time when it was not so. But last night we got off the plane in Halifax and the sky quickly got dark ....for the first time in my life the night looked so dark and spooky that it took some getting used to. The landscape here in NS seems very claustrophobic too ... .all those green trees and shrubs that I missed seeing gradually 'leaf out' .... and, today, GREEN. The earth here is so green ....I am able to greet the dusk with a little more grace and tomorrow night it will be better, I know.

I will be able to hang clothes outside to dry in the sun....but that is another blog.

If you are reading this in a place where you have darkness and light in the same 24 hours .... take time to notice .... notice how it makes you feel ... notice what you hear when there is light and when there is darkness.

What color stays with you from outside and what does that do to your emotions? Does it ever get quiet enough for you to hear your own breath? Enjoy that space.

  If you are reading this post from the North .... Look at the pink hue on the horizon and hear the sound of the ice and the earth coming back to life. Just BE... and know that Chris is back here in the south thanking you and thinking about you and all you taught me about your world and myself as well.

Love and light

Chris