A million years ago from a house at the base of Needle Rock, I sort of saw the northern lights. So faint. But tonight, the lights came bright, and amplified by the miracle of the iPhone camera.

The quotidian delights have been adding up the past few days, and I’ve been moving too fast and ending the day too tired to share them. Kind people, new trees, cheese sandwiches, fall colors… Tonight I was prepared to knuckle down and sort some photos, and offer gratitude for all the moments and for the gift of another grateful gathering.

But then, thanks to two friends who separately alerted me to the powerful geomagnetic storm lighting up the sky, I spent an hour freezing on my deck watching, savoring, in awe and wonder. The photo above is a standard automatic iPhone shot, 1/15s, f1.78, ISO 12500, and reflects more or less what I saw with the naked eye.

The rest of the pictures were shot with the three-second exposure feature at various zooms over the course of the hour. I ducked inside to grab a blanket and sat in silence with the tiny dingo wrapped up in my lap. It was a perfect opportunity to practice sensation without interpretation: simply being. But it was too cold, and once the colors faded some we came back inside.

The Aurora forecast map for tonight and tomorrow night doesn’t show much likelihood of seeing it as far south as central Colorado, but I don’t trust those government websites anymore anyway. I can only imagine the stunning photos from farther north that will populate the media tomorrow.

I’m grateful for and content with the magnificent gift of being alive on this November night. And I’ll sure be paying closer attention to the sky tomorrow at sunset.