I am fascinated with
anything and everything that is up above that I can gaze up into where I feel
so smaller than small and humbler than humble in a world so vast and open. The blue skies. The full
or crescent-shaped moon. The
fluffy clouds. The warm sun. Most of all, the sparkly stars that light up
the night sky. I think when we all die
that we somehow become shiny stars that sparkle in the dark up in heaven and
watch upon our loved ones that are still on earth. One of my Live List items
is to see the stars so up close and personal that I feel like I can touch them. This has been on my Live List item since 2012
when I first created the list. When I
shared with the select few that seeing (not just looking or gazing) the stars
was at the top of my Live List, people said I would have to go somewhere
deserted in oneness with nature. One guy
said I would have to go climb up mountains to see the feel the top of the world
on the mountain and above me. Another
person said I would have to go into the woods or fields. All I knew was that somehow and someway, when
the time was right and when the opportunity presented itself as with all my
Live List items, I would know and I would fulfill with a special someone. The special someone of who I fulfill my Live
List item is almost as important as the Live List item itself. The opportunity to see my
stars was presented to me in March 2018 when my sister and I went to visit
Mohonk Mountain House. In front of a
cozy, crackling fire with flames that hypnotized me into oblivion, I flipped
through a brochure and my eyes immediately widened in shock and glee that an
astronomer by the name of Bob Berman was going to be doing a lecture in August
called “Night of the Shooting Stars” and we would all go out in the vast open
fields to watch the stars, or, if luck would have it, experience meteor
showers. August! My birthday month! I nearly fell off the couch rushing to the
front desk reception clamoring: “Tell me about this ‘Night of the Shooting
Stars’!” My sister asked me what I
wanted for my birthday. I told her about
Mohonk Mountain House and that all I wanted on the night of August 12, 2018 was
to see and night sky full of twinkling stars.
She said she would join me and make sure that my birthday wish came
true. When we arrived there at the
mountain house, we spent the day jumping into and swimming in the lake, bopping
to 1980’s music as we paddle boated in the lake with the sun streaming on us
scrunched in our bright orange life jackets, and stuffing our faces into a food
coma from the most delicious food that you had ever tasted in your life. When night finally fell, I was breathless
with excitement! In a standing room only
filled to capacity of people, I could barely listen to and process astronomer Bob
Berman sharing his personal experiences about meteorites and tours that he
guided to see the mystical and magical world up above us. I tried to patiently await him to finish and
then when he finally stood up to guide us outside, I squealed to my sister: “This
is it! I am going to fulfill my live
list! I’m so excited! I’m so excited!” I was practically hopping
out the door, but then stopped dead in my tracks when the cool air swirled
around me into pitch black darkness.
There were no lights to guide us.
I started to feel scared. I
grabbed on to my sister’s hand. We
marched into the fields not able to see a point of light I was suddenly
extremely dependent on my other senses that heightened in functions: the pine
scent of the trees, the murmur and mumble of people all around me and the
crunch of our footsteps as we braved our way into the darkness, the taste of
trepidation that I was going to trip and fall flat on my face, and the feel of
the sweaty palm of my sister’s hand that transported me back to when I was a
little girl and she held my hand. I
wanted to look at my cell phone to turn on the flashlight but Bob Berman
shouted over our murmurs and mumbles with: “Absolutely no cell phones. You will miss the magic. Let the lights and your senses guide you.” Fear fell away when there
was a clearing. We all grabbed towels
and laid them on the tickling fresh green grass blades. My sister and I lied down side by side. Then, that is when I suddenly saw and
experienced the magic and adrenaline coursing through my pumped body as I
experienced when fulfilling my live list items.
Sparkly jeweled diamond stars blinked and twinkled before my glazed over
and child-like eyes in that midnight milky sky.
I lifted my hands up, almost feeling like I could touch the stars. I closed my eyes, inhaling the crisp, fresh,
and delicious air. I was tiny and small
in the unending and limitless skies above me that was so vast, massive, and
wide open that it almost felt like I could be swallowed whole by the universe
above me. I wanted to take my cell phone
out to take a picture to capture the moment, but I did not even bother to
because I understood that these Live List items could not be fully captured by
the lens on the outside so you can feel everything in unexplainable and inexplicable
ways on the inside. I was living out
one of my live list items: I was finally seeing the stars with my special
someone-my sister. Less than an hour later,
the clouds came in and buckets of rain fell.
In the hazy and foggy mist, the rain created an even more ethereal feel
and almost like a dream. Like all
magical moments and like all my Live List items that are so awe-inspiring, they
take a lot of planning and hold much anticipation and then they come and go too
fast, leaving you with an aftermath of imprinted memories and nostalgia that
you live again in your mind asking yourself: “Did that really happen?” The answer: Yes, it did and you are lucky
enough if you get to relive it in your mind and live to tell and share the
glory of the story with others. The most
inspirational, humbling, and beautiful moments leave us unable to fully capture
them so we can feel them and keep them alive in our mind when we remember them
again. What was a moment that you could
not really capture with lens but keep deep within you when remembering them
again? When could you not even explain the full capacity of the experience
because of the feelings and memories involved?
What magical moments have you lived again when you remembered them? Keep smilin’ until we meet
again, Mary ;-) |
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