Northern Lights
by Helga · 18 June 2026 · Travel & Nature
Helga has seen the northern lights around two hundred times. Do you get used to them? Not entirely. You get used to the fact of them. But when you properly look — the green, the movement — you still have no category for it. After two hundred times, still not.
I've seen the northern lights probably two hundred times. A reasonable estimate for someone who grew up in Reykjavík and spent thirty-five winters driving home from night shifts. You see them in the car, you see them from the car park, you see them through a hospital window in the middle of a difficult hour and they do what they do regardless of what you're in the middle of. They don't care about context.
What people want to know: do you get used to them? The honest answer is no, not entirely. You get used to the fact of them. You stop running outside to look. But when you actually look — properly, not a glance from a car window — they still do something. The green is not a colour I can describe in relation to other greens. It moves in a way that light isn't supposed to move. Every time I think: I don't have a category for this. After two hundred times, I still don't.
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