He Stopped in his Tracks

You've heard the saying. You experience something either too beautiful or horrific it consumes your attention fully. Let's just focus on the positive though.



That's just a random internet pic but you get the idea.

It doesn't happen often to adults. We've pretty much seen it all. At my grandson's b-day party one of the kids was running around the house and came into my room. He was going full speed but just stopped flat when he saw my fish tank. You should have seen the wonder his face. It was a joy to behold.

Have you had an experience like this that you remember? I can't remember one. But experiencing this vicariously was a joy.

The thread below yours is sucking the goodness of your thread from being experienced..

Don't worry, eventually folks will visit this and share as soon as they get over themselves..

ETA: My niece when she was little wouldn't allow anyone to hold her but her mother... she would actually freak out. One day, when I was leaving my sister's house, I had said goodbye to her and was already out the door when she came flying after me and gave me the biggest hug ever and almost passed out from the shear shock of the power of love and change.

She actually remembers this and she was 4 at the time and is now 24...

I'll never forget it...ever..

The first time I saw the ocean (age 15). The first time my son saw the ocean (age 11).

Maybe it's just a thing that happens to kids who have grown up in land-locked states?

Regardless, there's something breathtaking about it the first time you see it....like a "Wow, the neverending land does indeed really end!" type of wonder...especially for those who have never seen a body of water where they cannot see the shore on the other side.

i watched a rifftrax a couple nights ago that took a plot twist near the end that literally stunned my brain with wonder. i could only absorb it with my eyes wide open, and marvel at what the universe offers up.

if you're interested, trust me -- don't look up anything about it, just watch it yourself. it's called 'rock and roll nightmare'.

i also saw a sunrise in my 20s after staying up all night that was so beautiful i burst into tears... that was pretty nice.

a reply to: intrepid

For me....The sky:
The new house we live in has a much "bigger" sky (less trees and other structures immediately surrounding the property). It is also a lot closer to the ocean than our old place so there is a lot less light pollution in the evening. On the first clear night that I was actually able to relax (after unpacking and all that).... I saw a night sky larger and filled with so many more starts than I had seen in who-knows-how-many-years. For the first time in a long time I found myself just staring into the sky filled with all the wonder of questioning what may be out there and how big the universe is.

(Sometimes the sunsets hit me pretty good too).

Regarding our kid:
He was 4 years old. We took him to get his photo taken with Santa. Of course the official photo is nice but the one that I took prior... the candid shot... is one of the best photos I've ever taken or seen.

To our son, this was NOT a guy in a Santa suit. This was THE guy. The REAL DEAL. My son hugged the jolly fat man and had the slightest trickle of a tear streaming down his face. Pure love.

a reply to: intrepid

I had planted a cottage garden at our new house. It was dusk and I was out there alone cleaning up. All of a sudden, tens of thousands of dragonflies started circling over me. None of them hit me, but just buzzed around in a circle. The sunset hitting their Iridescent wings, the sheer number of them, the slight buzzing sound, the way they flew in a circle, they were so close but none hit me, it was otherworldly and I will never forget it, it was beautiful. I just stood there in the middle. By the time I went to get everyone they were gone! I absolutely love dragonflies, but I could imagine this would be terrifying if someone didn't.

originally posted by: intrepid
You've heard the saying. You experience something either too beautiful or horrific it consumes your attention fully. Let's just focus on the positive though.

That's just a random internet pic but you get the idea.

It doesn't happen often to adults. We've pretty much seen it all. At my grandson's b-day party one of the kids was running around the house and came into my room. He was going full speed but just stopped flat when he saw my fish tank. You should have seen the wonder his face. It was a joy to behold.

Have you had an experience like this that you remember? I can't remember one. But experiencing this vicariously was a joy.

Ummm...It's probably because I have a short circuit somewhere in the hardware...But I do that rather frequently...

It doesn't have to be anything miraculous...it doesn't even have to be anything special...

Sometimes...just the way the wind moves the trees...the stars usually though...I'll get home from work and get lost just looking at the sky...transfixed by the sheer magnitude...
A couple of years ago it was the thick layer of ice that covered every blade of grass and every pine needle on the trees...the way it scintillated...I just stood there in awe...transfixed...

For me...that's how absolutely rich this life is...when the most mundane is elevated by the sheer wonder of thinking how or why...or being thankful for the opportunity to witness...to observe...

Sometimes it takes the breath away...long heartbeats go by as I commune with the least...realizing that perhaps it's really the most...

Thank you...for reminding me about what's really important...




YouSir

a reply to: YouSir

Thank you for that. Maybe a lot of us are missing what's going on around us. I'll try to be more aware. This is a great feeling.

a reply to: intrepid

The last one was a bitter one. The view of the smoke coming up from the destroyed Twin Towers from where I am. I lasted so many days and I couldn't avoid it.

originally posted by: intrepid
a reply to: YouSir

Thank you for that. Maybe a lot of us are missing what's going on around us. I'll try to be more aware. This is a great feeling.

Ummm...your welcome my friend...I was like a child again today...My co-worker told me that the school was having a sale...I went to the school on my break and bought a microscope for $10.00...not a cheepie either...

All I could think about was putting a bit of everything under the glass slip and the slide on the scope so I could explore the miniature world around us...

To think that these 57 years later...the curiosity still burns as bright as it ever did...the urge...the very need to puzzle about...and to explore...

The most amazing part though...is that every moment...every second...every breath is encapsulated in awe...
Life is so damned wonder filled...

...Here's to wetting your thirst for more like moments...




YouSir

a reply to: intrepid

For me it's every spring here in the Washington DC area...I head out to a trail near the Potomac river and look at the floor of the woods...covered as far as you can see by bluebells (flowers.) link

They are beautiful and understated...until you see acres of them, carpeting the brown leaves on the forest floor. It's quite overwhelming the first time you see it...and the next, and the next...

Standing on the highest peak you can go to in the Rockies for the first time. There was a triple rainbow. Looking out at the distance with all it's greens and whites, and magnificence. It almost took my breath away.

a reply to: angeldoll

I forgot about that one. Going through the Rockies. There was more than one moment of awe.

a couple of times.

One we were in the bush on a lake in Ontario. I was mesmerized by the milky way, it was brilliant like you see in good art photographs. As I was gawping a plane flew past cruising pretty high, but as it's lights blinked the entire shore of the lake lit up as hundreds of fireflies blinked in response.

It was both the most beautiful and saddest thing I've ever seen.
The poor things never had a chance with the giant firefly in the sky.

a reply to: intrepid

That's happened to me on many occasions.

I was 13 the first time I went to Hawai'i, and my first site of the waves off the North Shore were stop in your tracks awe inspiring.

The glow of the Northern Lights off the snow capped peaks of the Brookes Range in Alaska, in mid-winter. Sunrise off those same peaks, a million shades of red.

My niece Sarah when I first met her, and wrapping me firmly around her tiny little fingers...she was three days old.

Sarah's utter delight when she met her horse for the first time. She just kinda stopped in her tracks, and her eyes got so wide. The horse, too, knew exactly who she was supposed to go to...wise ol' mare that she was.

Then some years later when Sarah got married. That was an interesting day...bittersweet along with the joy of the occasion... I gave her away that day, and wondered off and on, where that little baby girl I've known since she was only three days old had gone. Where the little girl who loves "nurppies" (slurppies, to you and me...) after school had gone so suddenly. Seemed like only the day before I'd picked her up from day care, or from school. Or walked in the park feeding squirrels...

a reply to: intrepid

That's happened to me on many occasions.

I was 13 the first time I went to Hawai'i, and my first site of the waves off the North Shore were stop in your tracks awe inspiring.

The glow of the Northern Lights off the snow capped peaks of the Brookes Range in Alaska, in mid-winter. Sunrise off those same peaks, a million shades of red.

My niece Sarah when I first met her, and wrapping me firmly around her tiny little fingers...she was three days old.

Sarah's utter delight when she met her horse for the first time. She just kinda stopped in her tracks, and her eyes got so wide. The horse, too, knew exactly who she was supposed to go to...wise ol' mare that she was.

Then some years later when Sarah got married. That was an interesting day...bittersweet along with the joy of the occasion... I gave her away that day, and wondered off and on, where that little baby girl I've known since she was only three days old had gone. Where the little girl who loves "nurppies" (slurppies, to you and me...) after school had gone so suddenly. Seemed like only the day before I'd picked her up from day care, or from school. Or walked in the park feeding squirrels...

Whenever a bird lands on me, that's does it.

The stars do it every time, unless its too cold. I have one of those gravity chairs just for the purpose.

Shooting stars do it every time.

Sometimes hearing laughter from far away does it.