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The Northern Lights Danced Outside My Window In Dublin, Ireland
And I chose to stay inside…
The Northern Lights are finally here — a travel dream I had awaited for a lifetime. But instead of the excitement I’d always imagined, a profound ache freezes me in time as if the lights themselves had pulled it out of me.
I quickly toss my phone onto my bed and ignore one of my friends’ Instagram stories in Dublin who just posted a picture of himself with the lights in the background. All I can think is of the nights my childhood friend and I spent in Wicklow and Phoenix Park in the dead of the Irish winter and early breezy summer, watching, waiting, and wishing for that green light show every time the forecast said there was a chance.
I’m reminded of those nights as I glance out the window and see that they’re in fact outside flickering and dancing. I freeze, their beauty blurred by the tears streaming down my face. My breath catches as I whisper her name into the stillness. “Sabrina. Sabrina. Sabrina, why aren’t you here?”
I’ll never forget the first night we spent hunting for them in Wicklow. She brought the hot chocolate, made with her favorite Butler’s hot chocolate kit, and I surprised her with her favorite cheap jelly donuts from Lidl. Once we reached a cozy spot in the middle of the Wicklow cliffs, we…
