List three experiences you've had, that you wish every single person could have
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
1. Playing music on stage
2. 2 hour phone calls about nothing at all
3. Helping Someone Succeed
1. Performing on stage in front of a minimum of 100 people.
2. Finally flirting with the guy/girl who you've been staring at out of the corner of your eye for months.
3. Staying up with your best friend in the world until two in the morning. Even if you have to wake up at 7:30 the next day.
Dancing in Rain and Hail
Falling asleep under a tree
Writing your mind.
Achieve a goal that you've spent so much time working on.
Fail. Miserably. Especially when you knew you wouldn't, or couldn't.
Learn that if you want something, you have to go out and get it. It won't come to you. No one will get it for you, nor should they.
1. talk with a dear friend about nothing and everything until the break of dawn.
2. watch ducks swim on the lake. sunny spring afternoon. just as bright cumulus clouds come overhead. seems as if the birds were gliding across the sky.
3. eating mother's lamb stew. so quickly after taken out of the oven that my tongue was burnt. absolutely worth it.
1. Riding the Wonder Wheel, and the Cyclone at Coney Island with some people who make you happy. It makes you feel like your a part of some sort of history.
2. Seeing the exact place where your family came from.
3. Laughing so hard that you can't breath for no apparent reason... just because
1) Fall in love, eyes closed.
2) Have your Heart Broken. Then fix it yourself.
3) Cheat, Emotionally. It's not true love until you don't need this.
<3
1. Being told your beautiful.
2. When your gettin it one and he holds you tight!
3. When your drunk and you dont have a care in the WORLD!
1. Believing that you literally hold a key to understanding mysteries that most people haven't even realized exist.
2. Seeing your baby smile for the first time.
3. Feeling yourself utterly emptied and being filled with the power of the Creator.
holding your child for the first time and feeling the depth and power of that marvelous emotion.
as a child, feeling loved and cherished above all else.
recognizing Baha'u'llah
1. 2 venti espressos as a prelude to a night alone on the beach with someone.
2. no going back now. airplane just took off. see the world. be back in a year or two.
3. sitting on the back deck watching a lighting storm at night, with said someone.
1. Finding the courage to leave home, so that I could experience #2 and #3, and all the subsequent miracles in my life.
2. Taking a ride with some friends in a jeep to a mountaintop in the Sierras, then hiking down a trail, under a waterfall to a lake, and finding a natural amphitheater of rock and water, where invisible giant speakers on the other side of the lake were playing CSNY and Moody Blues, and we all thought we were in heaven, it was so beautiful and unreal, that walking away from that lake was the hardest thing I had ever done until then.
3. Going to college to find whatever it was that I was searching for, an education, a husband, wealth, land, horses, bliss...and finding out that it was the Return of the Messenger of God for this day, and that my future would be tied forever to the Baha'i Faith, which is one faith that assures us that we do indeed have a future, and that we are one human family with one world to stand on, with one Universal Creator, Who does not leave us unguided or alone, but has left us to sojourn on this material plane with a purpose, to carry on an ever-growing spiritual presence and an ever-advancing civilization.
1. Talking at 3am with someone about childhood crushes, old best friends, and why real mac and cheese is better, knowing you can talk about anything and he'll listen.
2. Hooking up with no strings attached, realizing then, that wasn't what you really wanted, that's not who you are, and knowing yourself better because of it.
3. Realizing your high school friends are your best friends, because they can make you laugh more than anyone else, and you never want to leave where you are when you're around them. And keeping this feeling two years (and longer) after you get out of that hell hole.
1. Getting an enema and having rocks of various sizes inserted into the rectal cavity.
2. Drinking a bottle of Everclear after having some opium, then waking up to a tube down your throat pumping the alcohol out of your belly.
3. Watching your parents get dressed every morning every day until you're 18 years old.
1 sitting on the balcony of my barcelona hotel. smoking a secret cigarette and being pleasantly surprised by a saxophonist on the roof of the building on the other side of my street. it's dark, the city sounds, the jazz, the smoke. simple beauty
2 passionate forbidden love, so deep and intense lust, love,connection. nothing wrong about it, but pure and natural. and then finally side by side, intense intense lust like never before, and complete surrender, to what is un avoidable.
3 knowing that you inspire children to learn, or you helped opening the child's mind and its eyes just light up.
1. Climbing to the top of a hills, walking past the trees towards Rocco Magorie in Assisi, Italy, turning your head to the right and seeing mountains stretch out in front of you. Crying because of nature.
2. Watching a family mourn a loss from across the street. They were trying to drown their sadness, and they started to play music. I went out into the deck to dance, and somehow I led my entire family down into the street, and we danced til we all decide to go jump in the ocean (...drunk, which is not advised).
3. Sitting on the front of a bright white sailboat in the middle of winter with a green sweater on.
1. Total, utter, complete failure.
2. Total, utter, complete victory.
3. Euphoria.
1. Give birth, watch them grow, watch them fall and pick them up.
2. Forgive someone who has wronged you and then forget the offense.
3. Find solace in your favorite music.
1. jumping off a 50 foot cliff into a now flooded quarry when i am terrified of heights, for the express purpose of picking a fear to conquer.
2. telling someone i loved them not knowing what they would say back, for the same reason.
3. finally letting myself believe that i deserve to be loved, and being with the person who convinced me.
1. Do service in south Chicago! Work in soup kitchens in Lawndale- and if you meet LL tell him Natosha says "i love you." and give coffee to day laborers in Little villiage, they'll appreciate it and you'll get to hear about thier kids, and how they got here. (knowing some spanish does help.)
2. Work with children. there is nothing more rewarding than earning the trust of a little one who will look at you and tell you you're beautiful. Children are the most amazing people on the planet, and they're soo cool arround age 3.
3. Fall in love with someone worth while. like someone who will text you while you're working silly things like " i think i lied when i told you i think about you a lot. cause i'm pretty sure i never stop thinking about you." and when you ask where that came from they continue with:
"IDK. i was talking to my mom about college and the whole time i thought about you. i worry about you a lot. even when you're at work. i wonder how people are treating you. i wonder how you're feeling. when you're watching tv, reading a book, talking with friends...as you would say i'm soo in love with you, too much for my own good. usually i go to bed talking to you now i just lay in bed and think of how nice it will be to finally just lay next to you and sleep. there are many times when i become speachless arround you. the ammount of kindness and generosity you show towards others if just astonishing. when i say my favorite thing about you is your personality, i wish i could put it in words, you always make sure others have food when we go out with them wether they want it or not. you care more about me than anyone has ever. you make sure i get off the phone just because you don't want me to get in trouble or leave your house on time. there is just something about you that makes you sparkle. wether you realize it or not. when we're out talking to different people i try to glance at you onced or twice because you almost always have a legit smile on your face maybe being locked in my room cleaning for three days has just shown me how much i'm deeply in love with you. i wish i could show you how amazing you really are. and in a way you do spoil me back by showing so much love and care. i guess that's how i know you'll make an amazing parent. i wish like the first time we cuddled could be every night with you. a night where you are able to just fall asleep in my arms. in a sense i'll finally be able to help the person who has helped me so much. i know i'm weird, but i'm one crazy weirdo that's in love with you hope you're okay with that."
wither it's all true or not, everyone deserves texts like that, everyone deserves love like that. and i'm eternally greatful for that boy, and all the love he has shown me.
@rosenkranzc Hey sorry! It's been a crazy week. I have lived in Spain, Italy, Panama, Costa Rica, and Argentina. I live for the new experiences. It has been an amazing life!
1. Getting first in a 5k race. The feeling is incredible. Knowing that all the time, pain, and anguish I went through to accomplish that ended up giving me results was overwhelming. I was aching everywhere that I could, could hardly breathe, and the feeling of just laying down to pass out was far too enticing. My time was nowhere near as good as the best world-wide but in this race, I had won.
2. Reuniting with my old high school bud. He's always been a big religious person and I'm practically a polar opposite of him, but we got along just as well as if we were back in high school.
3. Making about 7 bets on a calculus 3 test with people thinking I'd do just as bad as my last test (got a 46) that I'd make an A, and winning. The combination of money and proving people wrong was great.
1) Working through serious and legitimate doubt about the religion you were raised as. This process ultimately led to much more than just a new perspective on religion.
2) Being handed something that you don't deserve-- repeatedly. Not many people experience this. It starts out fun, but can lead to overwhelming amounts of guilt. Eventually, you will appreciate the things you earned much more than the things you were given.
3) Raising a puppy, to a dog, to a best friend. Your little puppy will love you from the moment you bring her home and continue loving you everyday, forever, unconditionally, as long as you treat her kindly. It's the best feeling in the world.
meet Jesus (i'm a Christian, its what i do)
have your heart broken (sucks in a major way, but incredible life lessons)
just cut loose on the dance floor (you just gotta)
1. Skipping arm-in-arm with your friends until you slam into a closed set of double doors, then twirling outside in slow flurries.
2. Seeing a teacher you don't like that much make a Harry Potter reference and therefore redeem herself.
3. Realizing that other people think your friends are annoying and that you don't give a crap.
dance in the pouring rain
falling in love with characters
having music that your passionate about
While I completely agree about the whole correcting an "authority figure" on what they have already dedicated their life to, I believe my three include:
1. Having roommates who you actually get along with. I mean, REALLY get along with. So much so, that you become dependent on their being around because you genuinely enjoy their company and the way they think... even if they happen to be from the dirtiest of souths.
2. To have something taken away for an incredibly long time that you owned initially, or what may feel like a long time, and then to have it returned to you triumphantly after having worked at it. Earning something back is so much more rewarding than having garnered it in the first place... half of it is the realization of your desire or need for it.
3. This one is completely egotistic, but knowing that you are better than someone else at any one thing... or several things. It could be anything, be it beatboxing, horse riding, "art", DJing, or just plain jumping jacks... being better than someone at something is an experience unmatched.
1) Finding God when you're already saved.
2) Crying yourself to sleep because you've realized that you ARE worth something.
3) Correcting you English teacher's grammar.
1. Being in New Orleans while a street peddler sings a love song to you by moonlight.
2. Realizing that you are infact not your parents despite how similiar you are. :)
3. Having the rain pour down on you while you hop up and down with someone you share everything with.
1. Going down one of the largest roller coasters in the U.S. in 97 degree weather and 100% humidity with your Dad.
2. A favorite teacher hugging you in an un-creepy way, telling saying that you're brilliant, you'll go great things.
3. The love of your life telling you that he (or she, whatever) loves you and wants you, but they're not good enough for you. And then they leave your for nine months.
So number one. It happened a few years ago, my parents were making me move to a different school and I got angry on the last day of school, when they were making me do things for the new school, and I ran away. The solution? Bring me home, and take me on a road trip to Virginia for a week. They love me, they just want what's best for me.
Number two. I'm in an Honor's English class at my school. We begin a discussion about discrimination and the cruelty that people inflict on each other for no decent reason. Case and point? Emmett Till. I teared up and started crying. The next day, my teacher, Mrs. G. bombards me with a hug.
Number three. I fell in love. I was in love with him from the moment I saw him. I've always loved him. And then he told me he loved me, but he does bad things, things he didn't want me to get involved with. I know I'm young, but I am not naive. And I believe him.
1. being broke & still making it through college. adversity & success all rolled into one (along with a strange addiction to ramen noodles).
2. being stuck in a foreign country, passport stolen, friend gets on flight home w/o you.
3. SKYDIVE! climb to altitude, no problem. guy ahead gets out there & a split second later he's gone. just vanished. oh @#$!!! what have i gotten myself into. legs out the door, 80mph wind forcing them back. hanging on the wing, look in, instructor shouts "go!" letting go is easy compared to climbing out there. ground, sky, ground, sky, ground, sky, flap of nylon as the parachute opens. engine & wind noise replace with faint whisper of breeze through the lines. near silence & 4000 feet of freedom between my feet and sweet terra firma.
as a poor nerdy white kid from the louisiana swamps, #2 & 3 got me past my fear & opened countless doors for me. when i've hit low points since, been able to reach into the "if i could do THAT, this is easy" lessons.
1. Experience the beauty and magic of fireworks. It doesn't matter where you are. You could be on a beach, in a carnival, in a field. The sky just has to be black and you have to have people around you. I don't know what it is about humans that attracts us so much to explosions of coloured light in the sky, but we love them :)
2. Drive down the highway at night, windows down, music blaring. You can be alone or with other people. As long as you have the road ahead of you and the sky above you, nothing else really matters.
3. By lying on the beach, waves at your feet and sand on our skin with your friends around you and the sun on your back. Realise that this is almost as good as it gets and that in that moment you are truly happy and grateful to be alive.
4. (I had to have a fourth) Know what it's like to feel left out. To feel like there isn't a place for you and that no wants cares about you or wants you. To have people stare and point, and laugh behind your back. To be ashamed about who you are. I know this isn't a great experience nessesarily, but I think everyone should experience this at least once in their lives because it gives you a whole new appreciation for what you have.
I haven't been in love yet but I'm sure that will be on the list!
1) Being in the center of Laguna San Ignacio in a still and silent boat, surrounded by 10,000 whales and their babies.
2) Being present at the moment of birth and death of your own child
3) Fully experiencing being part of The Eternal
1. Waking up after surviving emergency brain surgery
2. Beating the odds (at anything)
3. Learning to accept quality over quantity
1: Laying in a field in the middle of nowhere, discovering him for the first time... the stars are bright, it's freezing cold and I feel as if we are both completely infinite.
2: Driving south down the interstate through Louisiana, no idea where we're going. Smoke billowing, the sunrise is breaking through the fog... hands out the window, music blaring and singing at the top of my lungs. Freedom.
3: The lights. The sounds. The people passing by, oblivious to the fact that I'm scrutinizing their every move. "What are they feeling?" The snow starts to fall.... "I never see snow in the south." I look up and marvel at the height of the buildings, as I try to catch a frozen flake falling towards my face. I have never felt so alive and hopeful. There is so much opportunity.
1. Find peace in someone's eyes.
2. Experience another country.
3. Completely following your gut.
1.) Show them you can when they say you can't.
2.) Climb to the top of a mountain when the skies are clear.
3.) Think deeply about life with friends to discover what the meaning of life is for YOU.
1. Being allowed by Secret Service to stand on top the press box (so I could see because I'm not the tallest person in the world :P) at the Joe Biden rally during the campaign
2. Front row center at a Bad Religion concert
3. Growing up in poverty with a dad being a war vet suffering from post-traumatic stress. It makes childhood more...challenging. But you grow up with a better understanding about how real and demanding life is.
1. "I hate them because (long list of well thought out reasons)." It's still not enough somehow, it makes perfect sense, I have every right. "I hate them because..." It hit me all at once, as I said the words.
"Because as long as I hate them, I don't have to care when I know they're disappointed in me." Sudden guilt goes through my body, but with the relief of knowing that it's the real reason. "I don't really hate them at all."
2. I'm hungry. I feel feral. I want something... something that has no name yet. It's shining in the stars, crawling along the bottom of the ocean, dancing in the flecks of a lover's eye. It tastes like spring rain and feels like fingers pressed against someone else's lips. I just need to taste it and this feverish longing will go away.
3. Dizzy, the world wants to blur away but it stays there so vividly clear. I paint a picture of swirling blueish greys with the burning red embers of the lit tip. I can't stop shaking, in fact my leg has been jumping and I just noticed. Everything is satisfying. I can conquer the world, it's not as hard as everyone makes it out to be.
1. Experience poverty. I believe it teaches humility.
2. Witness death. I once held the hand of a woman I hardly know, and held eye contact with her as she took her final breath. It was beautiful, humbling, peaceful....not at all as scary as I imagined something like that to be. To watch a soul move on.
3. To experience deep, profound love. From both ends, giving and receiving.
1. Holding a stranger's hand to comfort them (Be an EMT! You get to do this all the time!)
2. The rush I get from doing an act of kindness for someone and sneaking away (pay the toll of the person behind you! Its fun!)
3. Stepping off the plane for the first time in the country your soul comes from. (Ireland, I miss you.....)
1. Work in at a fast food place. I think people would be more respectful if they knew what it was like to have to deal with rude people who think you are below them just becuase you have that job.
2. I agree with pottsab. I think everyone should have to come out of the closet to see how scary it feels, but also how freeing it can be.
3. A natural high. Whether its traveling to another country, going to the best rock concert ever, getting a tattoo, or sky diving. Put down the pipe and get a clean high.
1. Come out of the closet
2. Question everything you've come to know
3. Find your own answers, even if they mean making them up yourself
1. See the look on someone's face when you have helped them overcome a fear they have
2. See love in the eyes of someone, anyone
3. Feel God's presence
1. for one day know that you have someone you can trust and love and embrace them every chance while you have them for that day.
2. go to a concert of your favorite band and sing like you have never sung before and just breathe it all in.
3. try and mediate. see if you can forget it all and realize the beauty that exists.
1. God
2. Scuba diving
3. Eat durian (It's supposedly Singapore's "national fruit" but I hate it by the way)
Move somewhere where you know no one. Force yourself out of your comfort zone, start with a new, clean slate, and meet new people.
Go to a park, lie down on the grass and just stare up at the sky. Appreciate the beauty in everyday life.
Be homeless for a day. See how people look down on others and you can get a true sense of who people really are. Live a day in someone else's shoes (even if they don't have any).
Loving someone you've never seen
A shift in consciousness (trauma, sleep deprivation, drugs, anything that gets you out of your own head)
Knowing you don't know
finding someone willing to love you for everything you are and arn't
having children watching them become smarter than you.
becoming my mom
1) Moving to a foreign country all by yourself. You realize if you can do this you can do anything! Especially if you don't speak the language.
2) Learn a foreign language. It will change your life. You can see your progress everyday!
3) Let go. Let go of it all. Leave everything you own. Yourself, morals, beliefs, and let yourself free fall. Step out of the label your family and friends gave you and give yourself the chance to be who you want to be.
- Finding this website
- Realizing that Rainn Wilson engages in general douchbaggery
-The satisfaction that comes from refusing to watch "The Office" ever again based principle
-Falling in love with the person of your dreams. Having the most successful and healthy relationship of both of your lives. Falling out of love and wondering if you just imagined all the beauty in the relationship. You take a break and finally call it quits. But, slowly you realize that it was not a dream and the person you loved meant more than anything to you. You fall back in love with the person, only to realize it may be to late. (that feeling of "the one that got away" is the most powerful and sad experience you can have in love"
-Doing your own comedy in front of a crowd of people and hearing them cry with laughter!
-Finding out that the places you used to call home no longer exist the same way. Realizing you cannot get away from them
-Childbirth (sorry guys)
-laughter through tears
-waiting tables, those who've done it know what I mean ;)
- The trill of going on a roller-coaster
- The feeling of being loved by someone
- Being cared about by someone...
• Unselfish love– my two sons being born. I would do anything for them.
• Spiritual – Figuring out there is more to Christianity than fire and brimstone & rituals.
• Career– having a "career" that i am passionate about and love.
I only have one and I feel it is a very enlightening experience. Letting everything go. just turn your back on all worldly possessions and anything that may be burdening your heart. When I was younger I had this experience. At the time it happened it was very traumatic, but in the days that followed I learned allot about who I am and where I need to go. This was a profoundly spiritual time in my life.
1) Accomplishment - I'm not going to name a task.. just finishing something major. For me this was a college degree. It could be anything though, I just want everyone to feel accomplished at some point or another.
2) True Love - It's a hard thing to define. I don't think I ever realized what true love is until my son was born. Best feeling ever. Everyone needs to feel this.
3) Happiness and Fulfillment - Sometimes, I get pretty down with all the things that life can throw at me. When I step back and look at my life though and be honest with myself, my life is pretty good. I'm not trying to make myself sound awesome or anything.. but I stand back and look at my wife and son and the things I've achieved so far and I am happy. I hope everyone can truly feel happy with their place in life.
1. The moment of taking off in an airplane, ALONE, knowing that you will land in a far away country in which you don't speak the language, and that there is no turning back now.
2. Facing death and surviving (mine was learning that I had a heart defect and needed urgent open heart surgery at age 30).
3. Being brought to tears by music.
1. playing music in countries where people don't speak english, but who totally understand your message through the universal language of music
2. being present when someone you love more than anything peacefully crosses over to the other side
3. experiencing both sides of unconditional love--giving it and receiving it
1. Hop a train
2. Travel across the country in which you live, backpacking and abvioding the tourist towns..really getting to know that folks that make up where you live
3. Give of yourself freely with no thought of recompense..or thanks or even acknowledgment.
I can only think of one thing..
The experience where when I am listening, playing, writing, performing.. whatever the case may be, with music, I get a chill throughout my entire body. It's a sensation that at that very moment, whatever you just heard, played, wrote ect., was perfect. There was no other way at that very moment to have this piece of music any different.
It is seriously a one of a kind feeling.
- driving to a strange city, you've only sang about, meeting new and strange people, let the rain wash over you so you don't smell so bad walking into the bar, then having the greatest man in music spit some words your way.
- Truth blankets, Ralph Steadman wine, and a big field.
- driving across America with your mother, only to know and realize that you love her more than anything in the world.
I'm a dork.
@MrTylerDavis just wondering whether you are talking about ADHD. the improv was a clue
-realize that you are becoming your father and that it isn't a bad thing.
-go off to college for 4 years leaving behind a core group of friends and then come back and pick up like you never left.
-tailgate at an SEC football game from 8am until well after a late game is over (you'll pay for it the next day, but it is totally worth it)
--being a boston red sox fan during the 2004 play offs
--clearing of the mind while watching and listening to niagara falls (pure beauty)
--have your child run to you and give you a hug and a kiss after you have had a difficult day (kids don't care, they just want to love and be loved)
FREDDY
1.) i sat on a beach in St. Croiux and slept, with beer in hand. 2.) I felt the breast of a beautiful 18 year old girl, nice. 3.) i got a dog, and made him my best friend, its like a love that i have never had, its innoncent and true, and he gives nothing back, but cute looks, hes a Collie, named Zulu
1. Coaching your child's soccer team into semi-finals, finals and then winning the championship game. The way those kids and parents look up to you and appreciate you is unreal.
2. Sitting in a room with your family after being apart for 12 years just soaking up the interaction of everyone laughing, talking and connecting in a way that no one else can.
3. Falling asleep with your puppy in your arms, nose to nose (it stinks sometimes) and waking up the same way.
1) Finishing a Ph.D.
2) Feeling my baby snuggle in, sigh, and relax on my chest after agonizing minutes of howling
3) Teaching another person something/anything new and soaking up the joy in their face when they finally "get it"
1) The spark and static energy caused by just a touch on the first date
2)Knowing that the years of blood, sweat, and tears paid off by winning a state title and getting your hand raised
3)Being happy and content with yourself
1) Finding someone you can be entirely yourself with and have them do the same with you.
2) Create something out nothing but a vision in your mind and have it completely move everyone in the room.
3) Continue to strive for your dream and never give up.
1) Cure someone an illness (animals count)
2) Swim in a warm Bioluminescent bay (see Vieques Mosquito Bay)
3) Doubt the existence of God, later on learn that was my faith's starting point after all
1) Being there when the San Francisco Giants beat the Dodgers in the bottom of the 10th inning, after seeing Barry Bonds and Willie Mays earlier that day.
2) Sharing the view with your Dad after hiking to the top of Masada in Israel and looking down at the Dead Sea.
3) Meeting and hanging out with Josh Wink in San Francisco and then watching him DJ a 3 hour set, just for you.
1) Have something subconscious seep into the conscious. Then, using that knowledge to create change.
2) Being able to appreciate the beauty in random occurrences. For example, I observed a white rich man have a smoke with a black homeless man the other day in the park. The rich man had a cigar, the homeless man had a cigarette. Nevertheless, they talked like old friends.
3) Having any aspect of art be able to profoundly move someone. For me, it is any Say Anything concert.
1) Seeing or hearing something so inspiring that you feel like your life is capable of being changed
2) A First Kiss
3) Working through a fear and overcoming it
1) Visit Hawaii. It doesn't even matter what you do there, just go.
2) Knowing and understanding that you just changed someone's day for the better. Hearing their laugh, seeing their smile.
3) The wonderful feeling of nervousness, high energy, and joy after performing with a big group of people. Realizing that you (and everyone else) just gave the best performance yet. Knowing how proud your director will be and the sense of being a part of something so big.
1- Went across the world, by myself, to make new friends and see new things. Spent five weeks cut off from everything and everyone I was used to and completely changed my entire perspective on the world
2- when I watched the children in the women's shelter one summer: I learned so much from the smallest things, and my patience grew exponentially. When one girl asked if I could be her mother, I wanted to cry but I also learned how important it is to look out for every child you meet
3- having my brother and my sister be my brother and my sister. It is the most freeing feeling to have someone who is exactly like you and still different, and I always feel so depressed when people tell me they aren't close to their siblings
childbirth... no epidural. Painful and scary but definitely something I would do all over again. Intensely amazing.
playoff game... for me, it was a baseball game. So loud, so much joy and excitement. Screaming at the top of my lungs and clapping until my hands hurt.
seeing The Leaning Tower of Pisa... incredible sight.
1. Kangarooing an infant in neonatal intensive care. My son was born 8 weeks premature and holding him on my chest while he slept and fed through his feeding tube gave me a whole new sense of purpose.
2. Standing on shore and facing the ocean as a storm moves in and just watching it all take place. There is a dynamic that changes in nature when you are in that place and you just can't explain it in words.
3. The courage to allow the darker side of you hold the reigns once in a while. It forces you to take a closer and deeper look at yourself and become more introspective each time you learn from that other part of you.
Following your heart and reflecting back later knowing without a doubt you did the right thing--even when other people doubted.
Feeling completely and unconditionally loved.
Sharing a kiss that starts in your toes and aches to the top of your head and back down again.
I wouldn't want everyone to have this experience, but it certainly changed me...
Waking up from a week-long coma to find my mom sitting right by my side. That's how I knew I mattered.
1. Realizing I can be me again, and I can fall in love.
2. Meeting Maroon5 on national television .. twice. (TRL, The View)
3. Living with my best friends and realizing they're my best friends when I don't live with them .
1. The feeling you get after you have just made one, or many people laugh hysterically.
2. Spontaneous car trips that renew friendships.
3. Riding my bike down a dirt road in the middle of summer with the sun shining through the leaves, just enough to light up the road like sprinkles.
---falling in love
---experiencing the reality of Jesus Christ filling your heart
---living in the wilderness all summer
1. Going airborne in your car, flipping it over on it's top and sliding several feet, being cut out of your car with the jaws of life, going to the ER and having the nurse say, "You're not the one in the accident, are you?" and you're sitting there with glass in your hair and not one scratch on you. Not even a bruise. The most euphoric moment that I can remember until...
2. Meeting my future son for the first time when he was 5 years old at a family function. He walked up to me with his freckled face and put the palms of our hands together and said, "Let me see how much bigger your hand is than mine." I fell in love with my child at that moment. Totally in love.
3. Having a sister like my sister. A glorious gift from God.
1. Finding out that your arent so strange, that there is a word for what you are, and tons of other people are like this
2. Being onstage doing improv. Having ones mind cleared of any worries they may have.
3. The freedom felt after giving up a meat based diet. Knowing that you're doing your best to not hurt other beings.
1. Move far away from just about everyone you know...but call and visit often.
2. See a production of a show you've written.
3. Turn EVERY light on in your house, and walk around singing "Every light in the house is on" with someone you love.
The first 2 are suggestions...the last one is a MUST!
1. Giving my life to Jesus
2. The surge of pure love for my offspring
3. On stage in front of hundreds of formally dressed people in a darkened auditorium and sounding enormous
1. Live someplace abroad where the culture is different from you in every way. Alone.
2. Performing comedy in front of a live audience. Making others laugh is a holy experience, a privilege really.
3. Donate your time, talent and treasure to those who are in need. (I did the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk and it was transcendent).
1. singing in four-part harmony with your whole family on christmas eve. seeing the shock on their faces when you hit a note even you didn't know you could sing. the community and passion in that place is pure ecstasy.
2. sitting in a barn with horses you have just fed. be still and quiet and listen to the sounds of their chewing, their breathing.
3. randomly feeling the urge to hug someone, acting on it, and realizing that the other person felt the exact same urge.
Followed a Bluegrass Festival across the country in an RV.
Played in a professional Texas Hold-em poker Tournament.
Met a childhood hero.
1. Laughing so hard that you cry. It keeps you sane.
2. Being completely comfortable in your own skin, and realizing that if anyone is treating you poorly that they aren't worth your time anyway.
3. Sitting outside in a rural area, either by yourself or with someone you care for, on a sunny, warm, windy day and just taking everything in. No need for talking. The silence says way more.
1) Sipping wine on the canal in Venice, Italy
2) Completely losing track of time while reminiscing on life with old friends!
3) Living in a culture completely different from your own.
1. Beauty. I have experienced so much beauty, it's tough to pick one. The breath-taking glory of creation and the profound expressions of the arts (especially music) move me.
2. Relationships. The love of my wife and joy in my children and long conversations into the night with good friends.
3. Pentecost. Being filled with the very Presence of God. It's more intoxicating and more sobering than anything else.
1. See the sunset at Machu Picchu in the Andes while Mozart's "Laudate Dominum" is playing on a boom box. Indescribable, really.
2. Getting things squared away with at least one parent before they die.
3. Finding something that will get you through the most difficult times.
1. Meeting a completely different crowd of people that you're gonna live and work with for a temporary time.
2. Finding that one thing that sets you free, sets your soul free. That one thing that you love doing and it will surround your heart with all the warmth it can offer. It can be a music instrument or something incredible rewarding as volunteer work.
3. Realizing that love will find it's way, you just have to clear the road and be ready for it becaue it will dare you to give it back ten fold.
1.) Almost dying and being alone reflecting on my life, it all happened very slowly. Made me see life differently.
2.) Losing your child. Words cannot describe what it's like to go thru that.
3.) Falling completely utterly In Love --no better feeling. I'd have to add that another valuable experience is losing that love, being betrayed by the one person you thought never would! Losing your faith and security.
1.Experience True Intimate Worship
2.Experience Pure Love
3.Understand and intake true and substantial wisdom.
1. Work with individuals who have traumatic brain injuries.
2. Drive across the state and drive home in one day. Alone.
3. Play "Stop Making Sense" in my living room and dance as if I was actually there.
1. The euphoric feeling of doing a well perfomed slamdance at a heavymetal show. Looking around, and seeing that extreme joy which shines from the faces of your fellow dancers.
2. Realizing the answer to that one specific question which had you down for 2 years.
3. Being together with your best of friends, new years eve.
1. Being on stage. Forgetting that there are other people in the room and singing your soul out. Then hearing the unexpected applause.
2. Driving on the highway at night with the windows open listening to "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
3. Coming home from college to an ecstatic family and home cookin'
1. Realizing, unless I want to die a young-tragic death, "growing old" is a wonderful thing.
2. The feeling of complete and absolute happiness as I glanced over @ my husband changing our daughter's diaper, waking from the "giving birth coma"...That picture was worth all the pain.
3. Finally realizing that I couldn't please everyone and that was ok.
1. Walking back to my tent at sunrise after experiencing 12+ amazing hours of music with 75,000 other music lovers
2. Driving 46 hours straight across the country with the man I love just because we can
3. Being deeply touched by the realization that you're a part of something much, much bigger than yourself
1. A child's lit up eyes when you come home from work.
2. The view from a mountain peak.
3. Watching, "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpdubbleu/3568123282/
1. Dancing, hugging, and singing with complete strangers about a book written for children, but still somehow understanding that what we are really singing about is LOVE.
2. Watching something that you created fall to pieces, but still be happy because you created it.
3. Talking into the night with someone you've never met and realizing at the end that you'd just made a lifelong friend.
1. Discovering God's Grace only to realize that your life will NEVER be the same.
2. Walking barefoot on a white sandy beach, hand being held by the person who loves you, breeze in your face, sun on your shoulders, and looking out at the crystal blue waters.
3. Trying not to laugh... even though you're absolutely surrounded by laughter due to the killer joke you just delivered.
1. invent the internet
2. save a bus load of nuns from a rampaging t-rex
3. proof read the magna carta
1.Sliding into a HOT bath after a 10mile run in the snow.
2.Laughing so hard I can't breathe.
3.Feeling competely comfortable in my skin- and only my skin - on a lazy afternoon, in a beach house with warm breezes stirring the curtains, nowhere to go, someone to love, drunk with the collapse of time and space.
1. Find God (the real one..)
2. Sunset in Brazil
3. At least.. no, just one day, feel hungry and have no money to solve that. (that shows you how fragile life is)
1. The relief that comes with forgiving those who have hurt you most.
2. Having people in your life you care for so deeply that you would give your life for theirs without hesitation.
3. A casual conversation over coffee that changes the course of your life.
1. hearing my mother say she is cancer free.
2. literally laying in bed all day on a rainy sunday with the person you love.
3. laughing so hard you cry
1) the way it feels to open my eyes at 7 am and see his staring back at me.
2) your child asking you not to go to work but to "stay home with her forever."
3) being told you're the most attractive person in the room.
1) Having my first kiss in the pouring rain
2) Breaking someone's nose to defend a defenseless stranger
3) Driving for hours and getting completely *lost* in a state I have never been in before. No GPS, that ruins the fun ;)
1. Play under heavy summer rain with someone you love
2. Sing in a karaoke with no shame thinking that you are a rock star
3. Have a cat and find out that everything bad that people say about them is a lie and there is no better sound than purr
1. Realizing how important a hug is. The connection with another human being is so important :)
2. Completing your first draft of a screenplay and then having it harshly critized. Then you find the belief in yourself to do another draft. Persevere :)
3.Moving to another country
1. Achieving something you never thought possible. 2. Finding true love. 3. Laughing so hard you forget everything else.
1. Tear someone's world apart who hurt you
2. Hit rock bottom
3. Feel true love
1. The part during birth after the head and shoulders are pushed out where the rest of the baby slips out - blorblorblorp. It feels exactly like it sounds and it's the few seconds before you realize "Wow. A PERSON came out of me!"
2. Starting something successful.
3. Starting over.
1. Realizing that happiness is not attached to stuff
2. Sitting in the middle of a symphony orchestra during Beethoven's 9th Symphony
3. Figuring out that there are more important things in life than yourself
1. When my sister comforting me after I hurt myself. I was about six.
2. The moment I realized I was a completely free human being. It was late at night and I was walking home from the movies. I felt so liberated and excited for my future that I turned on "Like a prayer" on the speakerphone on my cell and danced my way home.
3. A few weeks ago, a group of friends and I were discussing our futures. When a girl said she thought I would become a teacher, my best friend interrupted and said, "no, she needs to go out and affect the world". I will never forget it.
(No offence to teachers, of course. They make the world a better place.)
1) Complete a difficult, elegant mathematical proof and appreciate it's beauty.
2) Be nearly obsessed with a celebrity/band/whatever and join a 'fandom'
3) Move in with someone you don't know. Get to know them.
1. Be completely and utterly broken.
2. Grow something from a seed. Then eat it.
3. Move to another country and learn another language.
1. travelling for a couple months, at one point on a bus outside Kandahar two guys get on the bus, could have been the same two guys getting on a bus in Boston, Seattle, etc, I saw their personalities, not their nationality, not their religion, not their occupation. From there I saw that we are more similar than different. (Yoko on Twitter: Next time you meet a 'foreigner', remember it's only like a window with a different shape to it and the person who's sitting inside is you.)
2. Orgasm with someone you deeply care about.
3. Isolation tank: after about 10-12 hours of 1-2 hr sessions over a week, had the Basic Tank Experience. It never leaves you, ever so often, like here, asking for experiences, that one comes up and becomes real again. I can't say any more than it's like explaining orgasm or Brie cheese.
1) Holding my best friend and girlfriend when she found out her cancer was in remission.
2) Saving my brother from drowning.
3) Getting a standing O in my first acting class.
1. Set goal. Fail. Try again. Fail. Try again. Fail. Try again. Succeed.
2. Looking back on something that you thought was the most important thing in the world, that nearly broke you when it ended, and realizing it wasn't right for you.
3. Giggling aloud at something just because it's so cute you can't help it.
Laughing until you cry - a perfect moment of ecstatic joy and hilarity
Seeing the world beyond your home by traveling abroad. Looking into the eyes and hearts of other cultures, and knowing that every human is so beautiful
Fighting for a cause you believe in. Helping those who cannot help themselves feels like a promise and an enduring love, and believing that someday, when you are helpless, there will be those who hear your cries and will give themselves over to helping you.
1. coffee in Italy
2. caring for something completely helpless and fragile
3. sex in a public place
1) Waking up and realizing that the one you love is your best friend
2) " You know that song I sang for you earlier"
"Yeah"
"I wrote it for you"
3) Finding out who your family is and knowing how lost you'd be without them
Wake up from a coma to find that the world kept spinning without you. It's the main reason I believe that there's some sort of afterlife.
Have a long talk with an elderly person with dementia. They may not know their own name, what year it is, where they are, but can tell you in detail how beautiful their mother was, their first love and give sage advice on choosing a career, finding a mate & how to look in the the mirror and smile everytime.
Spend a warm summer night with a few folks who don't speak a lick of the language you. Realize how important nonverbal communication is and that we're more alike than different despite cultural differences.
I just had to comment to number 1 in the picture...
That's how I feel when I'm writing. I'm going, going, going, when suddenly I look at the bottom right hand side of my screen and see six hours have passed by and I have not X'ed out of word processor, or even taken my fingers from the keyboard. I literally go, "What just happened?" And see I've just written nearly 10,000 words.
1. Love someone unconditionally. And they love you too.
2. Suffer harsh consequences for something that you've done, and then use that experience to change yourself for the better.
3. Go camping. Pack your backpack with everything you will need for 3 weeks, making it as light as possible. Sleep outdoors. Don't look at your reflection. Enjoy yourself.
1. Being present at a birth and a death
2. Having your life flash before your eyes and living to tell about it
3. Starting over
1) Spontaneous ecstasy - walking down the street suddenly having a sensation of total joy as you appreciate the world around you, the blue of the sky, the crispness in the air, the beauty of the people.
2) When someone you love dies, to look around and see that you are supported by the love of those close to you, and that you are not alone in your grief.
3) Leaving everything behind to it the road and get by on your wit and talent as you travel.
Go to grammar school like mine, 350 acres in rural NH. Climb boulders, find salamanders, play in the brook, look for little fish, sled or skate, etc. during lunch and recess.
Have two kids, one boy one girl. One birth, one adopted from another country. Experience how you love them both exactly the same and show the world around you each day, that it's about the love, not the particular genetics.
Qualify for and run the Boston Marathon. Take in the cheers and tremendous support of the crowds, double over laughing at Elvis Impersonator on the route!
@tresfabuleux i'm doing mission work in South Africa in July! Any advice for my month trip?
1. crowdsurfing to your favorite song of your favorite band and singing your heart out for the whole night
2. pool days in downstate new york.
3. skiing in whistler blackcomb, british columbia. unreal.
The day I realized my parents weren't who I thought they were.
Seeing and gaining a relationship with my Dad after a ten year absense from my life.
To love someone so much you can see their soul.
I love this so much I shared it on my own blog: http://www.chooselovemore.com/blog/2009/05/26/cool-project-3-things/. Thanks for the inspiration!
1) Do some improv or stand-up comedy, and say/do something you think is really hilarious which is validated because EVERYONE in the audience thinks it's really hilarious, too.
2) Find a private spot outdoors at the beginning of a sunset, wondering what life will be like, but having a peace about it. Stay until the end of the sunset.
3) Laying next to someone that you truly love, and that you know loves you, and to not be worried about anything else.
1. Failing spectacularly. I wouldn't be 1/10th of the man I am today if I hadn't fallen so far and so hard.
2. Completely change the course of your life. It takes courage, and it's uncomfortable, but the pay offs are worth it.
3. Surf.
1. Go to bed hungry for more than a month because you only have enough money to spend 80 cents per day on food. It'll change your worldview.
2. Witness every one of your closest friends doing something they enjoy so much that they are absolutely giddy.
3. Meet someone who barely knows you and still loves you unconditionally.
Do something terrifying and completely enjoy it - like giving a solo viola recital.
Be so poor that you have to eat every last thing in your kitchen, because it's better than working a crappy part time job for a little cash.
Leave a "safe," relationship for one that will inevitably hurt you, because that's how you know it's love.
Ok, I need a fourth: Make out with someone nice in a walk-in refrigerator, and pretend you were just getting some grapes.
Another one I forgot to add is that anyone who eats in restaurants should have to wait tables for a month before being allowed to dine out.
1. A near death experience - nothing like that to make you want to live.
2. Therapy - despite the stereotype, it's actually helpful.
3. Seeing a Broadway musical live.
Here's three more that are a little more trivial, but still good:
1. Have an Italian Hoagie from Marinucci's Deli in Northeast Philadelphia. Nothing like it.
2. See Cirque de Soleil in a circus tent.
3. Learn to whitewater kayak.
1) Crossing the finish line at the Chicago marathon after 6 months of training. It was painful, it was difficult, it was tons of work, but accomplishing that goal made it all worth it.
2) Going to South Africa and doing missions work. Best two-and-a-half weeks of my life. It made me re-think so much about my life.
3) Having a mother as fantastic as mine. She's no longer here physically but I feel her presence all of the time. She was my biggest fan and my best friend.
1. Be present during the birth of your child.
2. Serve as a volunteer, and be able to provide lifesaving assistance to a person or people much less fortunate than you.
3. Be personally commissioned into military service by the President of the United States.
1. experience of salvation
2. the blessing of staring a family (wedding to children)... what an amazing feeling
3. watching a game at Fenway where the Red Sox come back in the 9th to win... amazing!
1. Eating lobster on Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.
http://www.peggyscove.ca/
2. Walking the ocean floor in low tide at Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick http://www.bayoffundytourism.com/tides
3. A spontaneous request for a hug from your 10 year-old son. Priceless.
1.) Being able to sing in Vienna, Austria during the holiday season with musical groups from around the world.
2.) Those few minutes when you're driving in a car, the perfect song comes on, and you become lost in your own world, as if you are in a movie and that song is part of your personal soundtrack.
3.) Sharing close relationships with your older relatives and absorbing their knowledge, wisdom, and humor.
Dipping your toes into any ocean. Do you know how many never see the ocean?
Riding a roller coaster
Visiting the Grand Canyon
Meet your favorite musician, actor, writer or just your hero.
Spend a month without technology in a tent. You'll hate every second of it, but man you'll appreciate concrete and cement [and every other thing in your life] after that.
Find the songs books and movies that changes the way you think. That second when you realize you've got a new favorite band, or fall inlove with a fictional character that can't hurt you.
1- Being lifted and thrown by a tornado (hurricane, earthquake, regular wave, tsunami, bucking bronco will do) and feel how small yet attached you are to the whole of the Earth.
2- On your first date with the person you are going to fall in love with, and looking down the street and to see them looking back at you with the same smile you are wearing, thinking the same thing.
3- Stepping off the plane to wherever, ready for whatever adventure/food/people/places/language that comes your way, and meeting it/them.
1. Rethinking a religion you are born into, and deciding for yourself what is worth believing.
2. Taking care of someone who is elderly.
3. Challenging a cultural norm knowing full well you will be ostracized for your stance and doing it anyway.
1. The feeling of accomplishment, no matter how big or small
2. Making love with someone you love in a misty rain on a summer night
3. Reuniting with a long lost friend you thought you'd never see again
1. Truly finding God and giving my soul to Him.
2. Working Backstage at a big concert
3. New York City with snow on the ground and jazz in the air
1. Adopting a child
2. Travelling to different contintents
3. A cross-country road trip.
1) Being present when a new soul comes into the world (baby) and when a loved one leaves the world
2) Watching a shuttle launch in person
3) Celebrating new year's at Old Faithful in Yellowstone in the freezing cold.
1. Caring for a loved one when they are unable to care for themselves.
2. Playing with a beluga whale and petting its melon and tongue. (This was REALLY fun, and only happened because our tour guide was new) I'll never forget Aurora.
3. Having a relationship that stands the test of time.
1. A multiple orgasm
2. True love
3. Holding a loved one's hand s they leave this beautiful world and move on to the next.
Serve/help someone in another less fortune situation without getting any credit or recognition for it.
Spend a week or more overseas serving/helping someone
Be a parent.
DISCUSSION TOOLSET
1) tears and sweat running down my face i push forward
2) Laughing until you get in trouble for it
3) Rebelling