the northernness

C.S. Lewis described a feeling he called "the northernness” as “a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of northern summer; remoteness, severity…” It was a longing for something so unattainable that the desire, sadly, became an end in itself. Later in life, Lewis came to believe that this “northernness” he had experienced was a taste of something so perfect and complete that it would never be fully realized in this lifetime.