Last Thursday, I found myself home at an unreasonably early hour. I finished up my chores and decided to head to bed early, by which of course, I mean I spent half an hour doomscrolling in bed. Suddenly, amazing photos of the aurora borealis began to show up in my Facebook feed, and I realized that the people posting were in relatively close proximity to me.

Like any good parent, I immediately texted my kids to run outside and check if they could see the northern lights before I rousted myself out of my cozy, warm bed. I got a lukewarm response from G, who dragged himself onto the porch and said, “Yeah, the sky is a little pink.”

Since every other time that they have been visible in our area, the weather decided to be uncooperative or I found myself out of the area, I decided it was worth it to leave my sanctuary. When I got to the porch, yes, I had to agree with G’s assessment. It was a “little pink.” However, I know there is less light pollution in our backyard, and I figured maybe the “little pink” would show up a “little better” if I went back there.

In what will surely go down as one of the best decisions I made in 2024, the view in the backyard literally took my breath away. The entire sky behind the house was a massive blaze of pink and purple, with a smattering of stars twinkling throughout. My hyperventilation and squeaks brought the kids running; however, they were less than blown away by it. After a few minutes I was met with the “are we done yets” and I wasn’t about to force them to stay out staring at the sky with me.

Maybe it’s because I waited 50 years to see them, and they’ve gotten lucky and only had to wait 14 and 16 years. Whatever the reason, they couldn’t be dragged back out, even when I told them that it had started shifting and was turning into vivid blues and greens. Don’t get me wrong, they did think it was pretty neat, but didn’t see a reason to keep staring at it for more than five or 10 minutes.

Ever hopeful that maybe my nerdiest child would want to watch them with me, I tried texting A, but alas, the light pollution in the city made any attempt to view them completely impossible. While he is loving his time in the city, hopefully this was a small reminder that there are some special qualities about growing up in the middle of nowhere.

So, I sat and watched the light show myself. Well, myself, and just about everyone else on social media. I know just about everyone’s pictures looked the same, especially those of us who managed to figure out how to use the night photography setting on the iPhone, but it was still stunning to see how many people shared in the experience of seeing them, many for the first time.

It wasn’t long before scientific explanations of why they turn different colors started popping up on social media, or the clever memes with people who missed out on them scribbling in bright colors onto a skyline photo. For at least 24 hours, it was pretty much all anyone was talking about. The next day at work, everyone was sharing pictures and asking each other if they’d seen it. There were, of course, the folks who had seen the “typical” northern lights, on trips to Iceland, or other places in higher latitudes, with some of them declaring the ones we’d seen even better than “the real thing.”

It was a real reminder that there is just a little bit of mad scientist and nature lover in all of us. I found it particularly interesting that this was a predictable phenomenon. Seriously, isn’t it simply amazing that scientists can study a flaming hot ball of gas that’s 93 million miles away, and tell us to get outside and look up a few hours later? While anything space related always makes me feel infinitesimal, knowing that we have the power to understand what is happening out there and know how it will affect our own atmosphere is just mind blowing.

As usual, any space-related event also brings back a million memories of Steve. He loved stargazing, teaching the kids the constellations, searching the sky for the Comet NEOWISE and then spending an hour setting up the camera with the right exposure settings to capture a gorgeous picture of it. I have no doubt he would have been camped out all night and taken hundreds of aurora pictures and his enthusiasm would have both infected the kids, and driven them crazy, as only he could. I did the best I could, and did manage to capture some pretty incredible pictures, even though I have zero knowledge about how cameras work.

If you did happen to miss the light show, don’t worry. Apparently the sun cycle is currently very active, and these huge geomagnetic storms are expected to continue until maybe 2026. Even though there is a completely logical scientific explanation behind all of it, it’s still pretty hard not to believe in magic when the world around you is so vibrant.

It’s also hard to understand that the same nature that provides such beauty is, at the same time, causing such utter destruction as it has with the two hurricanes that hit the Southern states. Regardless of whether you’re an avid solar flare stalker or you just heard about it on Facebook, be on the lookout for more spectacular light shows and take the time to appreciate that just for a few moments, everything in the world can amazingly beautiful.

Life With Liz is published on Saturdays in the Times News.