Huge lights, tiny rays.

I believed in the green light; even though they have been trying to convince me that there was a rather slight chance to see the northern lights during summer I had never stop believing. I watched the nights passing by; the white and sleepless in June gave way to July’s purple and bawdy ones. Every next night in August shriveled and went blue as my man’s lips; time for saying goodbye was coming. Dark was this night when he told me to get some rest but I warned him not to discourage me.
And there it was, the light in August! Long awaited aurora borealis, my very own one. The green slurred strip on a navy blue sky.
This is often an odd feeling, finally getting something what you have been waiting for so long. I am one of these people who sometimes tend to like their own ideas of things than the things themselves.
Do not get me wrong. I admired the northern light, its’ beauty and elusiveness. But it is not my most significant travel treasure from Iceland.
In fact, the northern light was just another one of the Icelandic natural wonders such as spouting geysers, extinct volcanoes, snowy glaciers. These wonders were all wonderful indeed and they look great in pictures. And that’s it: these memories were assigned to the blue photo album with the name “ICY-LAND” on the cover.
But the most unique Icelandic reminder is not there. It is just a sample in my head , in my heart – the Hrisey sample.
Hrisey is a tiny island. Hrisey is 150 people. Hrisey is fishing.
We took a ferry to get there – during summer it is not a big deal since there is a regular schedule. But in the winter it changes. The tourists are already gone and the habitants of Hrisey do not feel the need to get out. The two of us, the post-post vagrants were wondering why. Don’t they want to see more? For how long are you able to just fish and freeze?
These questions turned out to be more than naïve.
Why would they want to see more? There was nothing missing. Maybe there was no volcano but the people were definitely able to see the northern light.
But they also seem to see and appreciate more. The value of daily repeated hard work; the tranquil friendship in their community, the happy smiles of their kids.
The northern lights come and go; the quiet happiness of simple life is the reward for each of the night when there is no possibility to observe them.