Times when the universe made sense

I was watching an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. He was in Cambodia and he was doing the "end of episode" wrap-up. He talked about that collision of time and place when all at once, the universe makes sense. That is an event that I know and don't get nearly enough. This thread is for recording those moments.

Here are the ones I remember:

• Driving down a country road in late October and hearing Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.
• Laying on the grass in Grant Park in Chicago during Blues Fest and watching clouds.
• All flying dreams.
• One night's conversation with a friend that culminated in a poem and a drawing.
• The first 24 hour playhouse we did.

That is all.

edited 3rd Oct '11 9:42:43 PM by blackcat

Those half-asleep moments of startling clarity and understanding and vision that are so strong that you wake back up in an urgent panic, seeking to focus on it more... but it's like trying to shine a bright light on somethig that skitters away in fear of daylight - it's instantly gone, and all you're left with is this unnerving nagging suspicion that you finally understood things for a brief instant of time.

...that or that feeling is normal for falling asleep.

I get this more often when I'm sick.

I had one while out camping one year, in the Western Pennsylvania mountains, up on the the Allegheny Plateau. It was late summer, ferociously hot during the day and deliciously cool at night, and I had needed to go grocery shopping to restock the coolers and the water supply. So I went at o'god hundred in the morning, before the sun was up, since the store was open 24/7.

As I was walking back to the campsite after parking the car, I came up over a ridge and the whole campsite was spread out in front of me, with the embers of campfires and torches in some areas, some tents showing lights, other areas dark and quiet. The air was cool and soft, the sky was dark, but showing purple, rather than purely black, and the stars were sparkling. The moon had long since set. There was a ground fog laying knee-deep everywhere except the low spots, where it was pooled hip-deep or even waist-deep. I could feel the dew on my feet and ankles as I walked through the grass. I looked east, and there was a color change, that was almost more tactile than visual, where the sun was lurking below the horizon. My breaths tasted of wet grass and mist and woodsmoke.

I stopped and stood on that ridge for nearly half-an-hour watching the world yawn, and roll over for ten more minutes and then wake up and stretch and begin its day. And everything made sense, and I had a visceral understanding of "And He saw that it was good."

edited 5th Oct '11 5:18:43 PM by Madrugada

Usually any time I'm driving in the country, I can just look outside and say to myself "This feels right". It's probably the closest I'll ever come to inner peace.

My friends and I went on a camping holiday to North Wales last year. I have travelled a fair bit so far in my life, and I've seen some astonishing places and beautiful views, but for me nothing surpasses the rugged and untamed beauty of the North Welsh highlands.

At about 8 AM on a dreary Wednesday, we went for a walk straight up the path from where we were camped, to try and find a lake high up in the hills. It was steadily drizzling, as the Welsh weather has a tendency to do, and dense grey clouds were so low down that they were shrouding the summits of the hills, and mist crept down their sides. Every few minutes we would pass a spring that bubbled up out of the hillside and tumbled down towards the river, further along to the south. Unfortunately, the lake was further away than we had anticipated, and when we could just about see it on the horizon, we decided to turn back. As we did so, the grey clouds started to crack, and the sun burst through and hit the granite-strewn hillsides in such a way as to make their character change completely. It was a moment in which everything just seemed to click into place. I have never felt more in awe of the world, or felt a moment to be so perfect.

Photographs are never quite adequate for re-creating these moments, but I happened to have my camera on me and I think I managed to capture it as best as I could. I hope you agree◊.

edited 6th Oct '11 4:51:26 PM by Saeglopur

I hope I get to experience this at some point. I desperately wish for life to make sense.

A couple of times:

Sitting on a friends front lawn with their dog, all alone, just lying there.

In the woods on a camping trip, ignoring everyone to be by myself.

Lying in a hammock spending 4 hours singing worship songs.

Debating the basic truths of Christianity with my friend on the same camping trip as the hammock.

I really like the outdoors, especially the mountains. Things just stop being so complicated when you are by yourself in the woods.

When I was absorbed in playing a game When I watch tv or read a book I like When I was drawing. When I dream.

Heheh. The universe always make sense, if your view of it is wide enough.

Today was a beautiful sunny day with just a hint of a breeze and I was walking the dogs and I was right on the cusp of the universe making sense and then there was a squirrel. I hate squirrels.

I've been having these curious bursts of deep happiness very similar to falling in love. I'm not arguing with this, and I don't want to think about it too much. But there it is.

When I'm writing, I guess. Or brainstorming. Life makes more sense then. But I don't know if that's what you meant.

Boy, has it been a while. Now that I've read The Sheltering Sky, even the blue sky doesn't make sense.

Strangely enough, whenever I'm watching the Local on the 8's on the Weather Channel. Something about the graphics, the narrator's voice, and the music just combine to relax me. No matter how bad a mood I'm in, all I need to do is watch the Local on 8's and I feel calmed and at peace, and I know things will be alright.

Only one springs to mind immediately.

Last summer, I went down to Vancouver, staying with friends and family alternating throughout two weeks.

One night, my friend went to bed early, as he had to do a bunch of stuff in the morning, so I was hanging out with my usual insomnia, puttering about in his living room at about 2 AM. Ended up just listening to my iPod and staring out the window at Vancouver for a while, and somehow, a lot of the things that had been stressing me out around that time sorted themselves out in my head. Made a few decisions, figured out what I was going to do about them, and everything just clicked.

The rest of the trip was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, as well as the rest of the summer. It was amazing.

Lying next to my wife after being away for months and not being able to think that I have to return to the states, nor that even if we have said goodbye so many times now, it still hurts as if it were the first, and just being happy, with no stress or worries.