What is your greatest memory?

By greatest i mean the memory which has had the biggest impact upon your life and changed you as a person. Who knows, if they changed you, they might change someone who reads about them.

Wouldn't be good if i didn't start with mine.

The following happened on the nights of the 23rd and 24th of August of 2005:

I was at Beirut International Airport, Lebanon, on the above date. Me and my companion were waiting for a delayed flight, we got some food and found an empty bench where we sat down, hoping to get some rest. Opposite us, against the wall sat a monk who had his eyes closed, in a meditative position, the whole time we were there. Occasionally though, he did have conversations with strangers who sat by him and spoke.

The morning of when we were meant to depart me and my companion went and approached him, sat down opposite him and just said 'hello'.

He looked at us, very kindly, and we asked him what he was doing. He said 'nothing that can be done quickly'. I thought instantly that this is one of those guys that always talks in riddles. He looked at me in particular and said, something along these lines, 'nothing in life you do that is worth anything would have been achieved easily, do you know what kind of courage it takes for an angry soul to smile?' I didnt answer, just shook my head slightly. 'For every breath you breath the trees around you are at work, with every glance at the sun you must realize it is there because it is part of a system.'

I took a while to take in what he saying, as i was only 15 at the time. After a few seconds i looked at him and just smiled. 'See, you must have a strong heart to smile at a stranger'. With that he left and said goodbye, smiling.

I really dont know why i recall this as the greatest moment of my life, i remember it as clear as day, somehow what he told me touched me very deeply and i havent been the same since, i havent seen the world the same since.

Share your greatest memory.

:First off Please Flag this Thread:


I have three, that quickly come to mind, So I'd assume I have multiples.

9/11 I was in school, private school, I don't really react at all to situations like these.

The teacher came in and whispered into our teachers ear, we happened to be watching the movie about terrorists landing infront of a school and taking over the US, yeah that's our mindset, during the movie, what better time.

Now the teacher tells us, that as she knows that school is out do to America being invaded by terrorists, and that currently their bombing the USA all over, Nasa, New York, everywhere.

Us kids, scared #less! Not me really, I adapted quick.

I found the whole class in hysteria, claiming that all their relatives where now dead, their mother and father, quick hysteria, I found myself a comforter, and reminding them not all the facts where in, and such, I surely found myself seclude away.

That had a big impact.

A younger version of me, when my Dad came for his, once a year visit with me and my sister, we would go for a week to a month, to his grand estate, and have a blast.

Except one year, he didn't want me to come. I'm not sure why, but it was complete abandonment by a parent I rarely saw. He was a good man. A great one. But that one year didn't want to spend time with me. I often listen to the Song by Everclear

www.youtube.com...

And it makes me feel a bit better, it was a parallel story, but has it's differences. Got me through some times.

I became an addict, and took a ton of money from him.

We made up at the beginning of 2008. I was sober for the first time in a while. We made up, we promised a future of getting to know each other for once.

He died Nov. 6 2:00 am. It was a surprise.

We never got the chance to get to really know each other.

And last. Is quite simple.

I met a man the other day. Wife kids and such. From what seemed a great husband, a great father. Treated me with the upmost respect at my store, as kind as could be. I felt suspicious as hell. He tipped me, and I never saw him again. He never asked me to give him something for free or anything.

That was possibly the only person I've ever met, that did something for me, and treated me kindly. With no strings, just being a good person.

It had a surprisingly big effect on me.

Lol, good topic

[edit on 21-8-2009 by Republican08]

reply to post by Republican08


That's fascinating, and im sorry you never got to know your father, it can be hard, but it can also give you strength.

And i agree, it is the random acts of kindness from strangers especially which can have the most profound effects on us.

Thanks for sharing so whole heartedly.

Originally posted by serbsta
reply to post by Republican08

 

That's fascinating, and im sorry you never got to know your father, it can be hard, but it can also give you strength.

And i agree, it is the random acts of kindness from strangers especially which can have the most profound effects on us.

Thanks for sharing so whole heartedly.

It was weird that such a stranger, never known before, nor after can have such an effect.

Really makes you think introvertly about yourself I suppose.

I don't believe i've ever met a real life monk?!

Although, I'd ask all sorts of questions. Of course.

Then be riddled, shortly after my head would explode. J/K it wouldn't.

It's the impacts, good or bad, that I feel define us as a being.

And we all have different ones. But have sort of connections through them, even if there different.

And some who have the same happenings, end up with very different outcomes, and impacts.

Think of the alternative way you could've thought about that monk.

reply to post by Republican08


I could think of alternative ways to perceive my experience, but i think i've taken it in as best i could without actually becoming a monk myself.

In its entirety, the impact of a random act of kindness from a stranger is not complex, its what we feel about it that can become complex. An act of kindness can go unnoticed by some and can be welcomed and glorified by others. I think it comes down to how we already are as a person and what we are ready to accept.

reply to post by serbsta


I know my experiences in life, have taken me on a 'wrong' route, but I don't really know where my own route ends, so it could be a right route.

We all get lost and end up right we're supposed to be, so as though these experiences and the way I can't resolve them, or deal with them, I know, that maybe it'll all be for the good.

I still honestly, don't believe my dad is actually dead, not a conspiracists side, just the fact, I would seem him yearly, and well I figure this winter or next summer, or ten years from now.

It'll all come crashing in, or i'll be in this denial forever. Either way, I was the one who pulled the plug, and can't believe it. A euthanistic experience, with an unbelievable feeling.

For that guy, the guy i'd like to be, just don't think i'd ever be, that good of a person.

But I guess, if there is or ever will be a purpose, it'll explain me one day or a #in nother.

reply to post by Republican08


I would have to say that im slightly confused with what you're saying. You pulled the plug?

No one else is willing to share their best memories? Nawww damn, thought it would be interesting.

Being tortured, for no reason other than people making stuff up. 99% of people are [snip] just trying to wreck anyone elses life.

I can go into more but cannot be bothered.

99% of people have no clue what so ever, of the evil behind the scenes running there lifes.

Mod Edit: Profanity/Circumvention Of Censors – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 21-8-2009 by Gemwolf]

Originally posted by serbsta
reply to post by Republican08

 

I would have to say that im slightly confused with what you're saying. You pulled the plug

No one else is willing to share their best memories? Nawww damn, thought it would be interesting.

I really thought it'd be interesting too, it's why I keep trying to star and flag, yet I fail. lol


I signed the DNR, and put phone number, signature, signing the paper, saying that the next time he went into cardiac arrest, that they do not try to bring him back to life.

I know he was already insensitive to even local pain, and for all I know, wasn't even alive, except for a beating heart and working brain, at its minimal.

He died on his 13th cardiac arrest in which we said no more.

He had, had heart surgery and we were told, a full recovery, and a almost new body, would be something to expect.

We didn't think death was something that would pop up.

Apparently from notes, he knew his death was coming, and embraced it. He wanted to die over live a handicapped life. Which he shouldn't have, as we were told.

The day of death was the day he first started rehabilitation. He slumped over in the wheelchair, and I guess, sort of died.

Weird to see a strong and powerful man, influenced over 100,000 lives, not even strangers but employees, and then add on family and such. Could die.

Remarkable I guess.

I guess not knowing, is what does the most damage, but my signature was of the other 7 or 8 that was there. Not sure who else signed?

But still feel the guilt.

It has to be when my school football (soccer) team won the County Cup. I was 16 and went to a very small school in a villiage in England, yet we managed to take on and beat the best schools from the surrounding county's. The feeling when the final whistle went has only ever been replicated synthetically since. It was just an amazing summers evening in 1996 with all your team mates that bonded so well. I remember it like it was yesterday.

I went back to the school recently and the achievement has never been reproduced.

All the members of the team were given special sweatshirts that could be worn with your uniform, This didn't go down too well with the rest of the students, but it didnt stop us.

reply to post by Republican08


Well i can only advise you to keep going, keep your head up and dont look back with regret. Life is what you make it, make it positive, no matter how hard it is.

@ woodwardjr: Thats a memory many of us can share as well, i have a couple of similar ones aswell from my younger years and can say that they too will never be forgotten.

Cheers.

Originally posted by serbsta
reply to post by Republican08

 

Well i can only advise you to keep going, keep your head up and dont look back with regret. Life is what you make it, make it positive, no matter how hard it is.

I try, I don't want to live my life in regret, but I always want to remember.

Maybe it can be good or bad?

I'll find out at my ending, as freudonian vs. despair.

reply to post by serbsta

My greatest memories are definitely the births of my children, but I don't want to go into all the details about those experiences.

There's one random encounter in my early life that I think really helped to change my perspective and broaden my thinking...

I was in a group home at the time, but my parents could visit on the weekends and take me out for a few hours. We went to the mall. I went outside by myself to smoke a cigarette.

There was a guy a few years older than me, sitting on the bench. He seemed the kind of laid-back hippie type. I didn't ever get to talk to anybody cool, since I was in government custody, so I wanted to talk to this guy.

I asked him for a lighter (even though I think I already had one). He lit my cigarette and asked me some sort of philosophical question. He started talking to me about existence, the nature of reality... I can't remember anything specific that he said, it was all really over my head at the time.

He introduced himself as "Pharaoh".

He told me to go to the mall bookstore and buy "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. He made me promise to read it, and he wrote it down for me.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f4171a6190db.jpg[/atsimg]

With a little note on the back.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/749a7757743c.jpg[/atsimg]
It's all in your mind my sweet -O-

I did buy the book. I covered the note in tape and used it as a bookmark when I read it. Today, I don't personally like Stephen Hawking that much, I'm more of a Carl Sagan or Michio Kaku gal. Still, I had to start somewhere.

I guess this encounter changed my perspective about science. I was probably 15 at the time. My impression of "Science" was overcast by incredibly boring teachers. So this was my first experience with someone being passionate, even borderline-spiritual, about science.

And he didn't seem to be flirting at all, just telling me his personal revelations about existence.

Sometimes I wonder who the [expletive] he was and why he talked to me. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time, or find him now, because I'd be able to understand what he was saying and actually discuss things.

It's probably best that I can't. Just have to take it for what it's worth to me now.

Awesome topic. Thanks for asking the question and inspiring me to reminisce a bit.

my greatest memories are my two UFO sightings. These events changed my life, and after seeing a couple at such a young age, I was left shellshocked.

These memories are so ingrained in me that I can see the events playing over in my mind, in full colour and emotion. Not a detail has been lost in how I watched these things; the memories are still as vivid as they were the nights they happened.

If you want to find out the details check my profile for a thread I posted not long ago about it.

[edit on 21/8/09 by dmorgan]