Comments
What does it feel like to be alive?
More thoughts from those who inspire my life.
To those who shared experiences perhaps too intimate and private to post here, we acknowledge your spirit and words.
Dearest Deborah
I’m grateful to share your celebration of life with you and your brilliant friends.
Life is a mystery and should be celebrated every day, either with just a deep breath or a glass of champagne!
Sebastian Schildt
Jeweler
http://www.sebastianschildt.se/
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Bill Sargent (author)
What a good thing to do! I've had my own ups and downs this past year leading to better things! Illness and was flat on my back for 6 weeks and couldn't do my regular science writing, so I wrote my first children's book about a princess who falls in love with a bull! Actually turns out to be a great way to write about science as well. Took up yoga and have become hooked, leading to better eating, thinking and a better way of life in general! Illness really wakes you up and makes you decide what is important! Good luck and all the best wishes!
Bill Sargent
Author (Ipswich Ma)
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Joe Gaydos
Having traveled in Asia, Africa and Central America, I’ve often felt that people I’ve met there, while often living more marginally, are actually more alive. A few years ago I saw a quote in Peter Goodwin’s book When a Crocodile Eats the Sun that kind of captured that thought. I share it with you and others:
“…maybe that’s why you seem to live more vividly in Africa. The drama of life there is amplified by its constant proximity to death. That’s what infuses it with tension. It is the essence of tragedy. People love harder there. Love is the way that life forgets it is eternal. Love is life's ability in the face of death.”
At times I feel our false sense of security in the more “developed” world (the 401K plans, the advanced medical care, the rare need to worry about the origins of our next meal) actually removes us from the true experience of being alive! It might also be what separates us from our ability to see how dependent we are on each other and on the natural world.
Joe Gaydos DVD, Orcas Wa.
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Deborah
Thank you for making me part of your close community.
Life is like a rainbow. I started on one side, i will end on the other. My entropic search for the good matching colour took me some time and raised my mind up on the bow. I even popped out the spectral colours with fever. But at one point, i will slide down the rainbow. I don't know if i reached the top, i don't know where i will reach the ground, in fact i know very little..... but i am glad that nature will always make perfect rainbows for unperfect humans.
Just a thought
Trés affectueusement
Gilles
(Dr Gilles Alyrangues, Chief, ER Dept)
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ALIVE?
Deborah, I read your email with a singular resonance. Like you, I am thankful for being here today. When I was living in San Francisco in the 70s, my wife and I attended a party at a friend’s apartment. When my wife answered the door to welcome the latest guests two men wearing ski masks confronted her. One struck her with the butt of a gun, stunning her. Then both men entered. The man with the gun leveled it at my forehead, and we were told not to make eye contact. I did not. We were told to remove our watches and jewelry and to remove money from wallets and purses. We did so. They told us to go into the bedroom. They told us to kneel down around three sides of a mattress that was on the floor. One of them threw a blanket from the bed over us. We were told to put our hands behind our back. They tied our hands. We were told not to move. I thought we would be killed.
We were not killed. Instead, the two men left the apartment. Every day since that day I am thankful to be alive.
Thankful USA
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Carole Cousin- an inspiration to us all right now
So beautiful Deborah!
Thank you for such a spiritual and optimistic thaughts
I wish you a Happy Halloween too Enjoy life and the beauty of our material world
and Happy Thanks Giving festival to come soon
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Claire Simone- Veterinary Medicine Student
Hi Deborah,
Claire Simeone here, one of the students on the Envirovet trip two years ago. I
thank you so much for including me on your list for sharing this celebration of
being alive. I am, of course, very thankful to be alive, but I am also thankful
to have people like you in my life, to keep me aware of this fact.
It is very easy to get bogged down by the pressures of veterinary school. While
we do seem to be a group of bright and lucky people, I am amazed by the amount
of negativity I encounter quite regularly. Many people are worried about debt,
of course, but are also worried about becoming burned out in a dead end job,
when they are working so hard to even begin that career!
I have been so lucky to meet several people like you, who are following a
passion; refusing to settle for anything less than changing the world for the
better. It is the constant urging I need to align my life with my true
capacity, strength, and calling. Thank you for sharing your success so that
those of us who are currently stuck in the trenches can remember what it is all
for.
P.S. - Thank you for your small nudge; next year I will have externships at the
San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, and will be working on a policy project
with International Fund for Animal Welfare. I'm excited to see all of the great
work they do first-hand.
I hope you're well.
-Claire
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Joan Miyazaki Educator (SUNY)
"Though our answers will vary, asking ourselves that question regularly is a good and important thing to do--thanks for reminding us. Happy ALIVE Anniversary Deborah!"
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Mark Hixon
This is a great idea. I just recovered from swine flu. While I was in the middle of it, I considered whether I was ready to go if it was my time – an interesting experience.
Mark Hixon, Professor OSU
Some of the comments from October 31 2009
Douglas Kelly
To all the ghosts
Who haunt our lives;
Never seen
Never absent…
Ghosts!
And to life!
And the living!
And the living of life!
For soon…
We too
Shall be ghosts
Never seen
Never absent
Ghosts!
Douglas Kelly
Paul Leighton
Thank you for this reminder / I received the email whilst standing in line at a flu shot clinic, I had arrived at 6:15 for an event to start at 9 (there won’t be enough). Here to protect the lives of my two young children from something so tiny as a virus. I can never board a plane without thoughts of you and always take my assigned seat in the rear. The unique and simple ways our lives touch others. Paul
Jacquie
Wow...nine years!! I think you are an incredibly brave woman. I am not sure I would have had the courage to fly once again. But after getting to know you, there is nothing that will keep you down, not even a plane!!
jacquie
Libby Troyer
Hello Deborah,
In my life is rich in fantasy; I love looking to the east of here where the sun rises and love Petite Anse just below us. I had no idea that you had been involved in a near fatal crash. My family was almost on the manifest for the crash of Air Caraibes into St. Barths back ten years ago; certainly a reason to give pause and thanks -- it was horrifying being in the arrivals area with no idea of what was next.
I also literally need to give thanks to Dr. Harbour in the St. Louis Retina Clinic for news that he delivered a year ago. It was an involved situation that turned out well, but could have been a three year death sentence -- the clock ticking, with the end not being so good. We are all very fortunate.
Talk to you soon.
My best regards,
Libby
Dan Rohlf
Hi Deborah! I enjoyed reading some of the postings on your new site; thanks for sending the link to me.
I appreciated the opportunity to think about what it means to be alive, but I also thought about how glad I am that /you're/ alive. It sounds like you've had an interesting and perhaps difficult year. I hope everything it OK, and that your various work is going well. You're doing a lot of important things.
Daniel J. Rohlf
Professor Environmental Law
Charles Conrow
Deborah,
Great site! As you know, I had my own trip to the edge, and a bit of a bumpy return. The one major change has been my enhanced closeness to animals – especially my horse Streak! I see every emotion I have in him, and he can bring me comfort in my darkest hours. Unfortunately I still have a few of those. At the same time, I think he has recovered from his abuse, and now is a pretty happy horse. It is definitely a major sea change in my life, and one I didn’t know I was missing, and now the source of my happiest moments. If there is any hope for the world, it is in the fact that this relationship between two living creatures can exist.
Charlie
Hi, Deborah,
Thank you for posting your thoughts and question.I’m in Tokyo today, enroute to Niigata for a meeting of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. To me, doing public service, especially in the arena of conservation, is one of my strongest feelings of “being alive,” or at least, “being relevant while alive” which seems more to the point. This summer, climbing rather carefully the last ridge to the summit of Mt. Washington in the Olympics, made me also feel very alive, as in “present to the possibility that if I’m not careful, I may not be alive long!”
To zoom out to a more philosophical point of view, though, regardless of the plane of our existence, we are always alive and yet always at risk of not living fully.
Cheers to you for living life so fully!
--g
Gary T. Smith
Smith & Stark
Beth Harrington
Great theme. Feeling it a great deal this year. Lost two of my closest friends. Dad and Andy's father are sick. Just wanting to maximize everything I do. Creativity certainly fits into that. Playing guitar, taking swimming lessons for the first time since I was 7, enjoying my friends and family.
All the feelers are out.
Beth Harrington
Independent Producer
I’m honored by the many of you who wrote and shared intimate and personal thoughts and experiences- ones you said you hadn’t shared with anyone ever. Out of respect for privacy, I have not let those comments post to the web. But thank you for your confidence in sharing such deep and moving experiences,
