My Childhood Memories of the Remarkable Events - Essay Example

? Personal Narrative Essay As it is often said, life is a mystery. Ever since my childhood, I was fortunate enough to experience some of the remarkable events. As a kid, whenever I looked at the sky at night, a scene appeared which puzzled me – why so many stars could hang in the sky and did not fall on the Earth. The question often arose in my mind: who was holding them in the sky? At times, I used to get a simple answer that God was holding them so that we kids could watch and play with them. When I grew up I moved to a coastal city with my parents. Many small hills were lurking behind on north sides of the town. Fortunately, I got a company of Sarah, who lived in the city since her childhood, and she was well acquainted with the geography of the town. Once she took me to a nearby hill in the early morning hours to show me some rare birds. She told me that she visited this place after her school hours when she was in the 9th form. The hills were full of dense trees all around. The most fascinating thing was that variety of birds had their nests in these trees and the place was full of melodious sounds. She drew my attention to a bird called Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The bird had a typical hollow sound quite soothing to the ears. Sarah took me to a place at least 100 meters up in the hill, where I saw birds that she identified as bluebirds. Bluebirds had white stomachs, rust-colored breasts and bright blue feathers, and they were chirping all in unison. Sarah told me that their numbers were dwindling quickly due to ill doings of humans. At once, a thought came to my mind that with such beautiful species becoming extinct, humans will not be able to enjoy the beauty of nature. When I focused through my binoculars on the nest, I was amazed to see two little bluebird nestlings making noise – perhaps asking for the food from their mother. Mother Bluebird was feeding them with a great effort through her beak. It was indeed a greatest mystery – a mystery of creation in this universe, and I bowed down to Mother Nature with a feeling of awe. I have always been a moderate swimmer – moderate in the sense of not possessing any extra skills that are expected from a good swimmer. Perhaps, that is why I had a close encounter with death when I was at Fort Lauderdale Beach on my vacation tour. Swimming in my customary style, I had gone a little far off. My friends were swimming at some distance. I was jolly making some movements in the water – perhaps attempting to do some water exercises to remain afloat effortlessly without realizing that my unique exercises would put me in great trouble soon. At some bad moment, my feet were stuck in some marshland. The more I tried to come out, the more immobile I became. I tried to scream but could not as my mouth was filled with water. I was losing my breath and power. I soon realized I was going to drown. But, as luck would have it, for a moment my head came out of water and I screamed loudly. Hearing my call, someone from nearby rushed quickly; he held my hand and pulled me out with full force. In the next moment, I was out of the marshland. The whole episode lasted only for a minute or so but the incident gave me an unforgettable near-death experience that will remain with me until the end of my life. Its memories still hound me. The most significant part of the episode was that I realized a true meaning of life – the life that encompasses a myriad of species on this planet. Sarah’s cousin, Sierra, was a most passionate dancer. When I saw her in one of her performances, I was amazed at the way she effortlessly performed a Swirling Sufi dance. I found her totally engrossed in the Dervish dance. Sierra told me about Nijinsky, an outstanding and the most cherished Russian dancer. When Nijinsky used to perform, one would feel as if he was out of bounds of gravitation. He would make a leap and fall as if a leaf was coming down slowly and slowly. Sierra would say, “Watching a dance is a good thing but performing it is a much deeper experience”. I learned a few lessons from her on Dervish dance and how astonishingly correct she was! I was puzzled – where did I get so much energy from? Even after two hours of dance lessons that I received from Sierra, I never felt exhausted and often felt as if I was connected to some external pool of energy keeping me fresh and agile. It was a most exhilarating experience that I would like to cherish forever. Child hood memories were still haunting me; after receiving a somewhat better understanding about planets, galaxies and stars, I wanted to observe them through my small telescope. How amazing it was that what I observed in the night did not tell me anything about that particular moment. In fact, what I observed informed me about the past – an era that went as back as several hundred and thousands of years, when humans perhaps had not even begun living on this planet. In a way, while observing these stars, I was going back in time. It was quite likely that many of the stars did not exist at the time of my observation and yet they were visible to me. The enormous distances of the stars, measured in light years, caused this weird phenomenon and how wonderful the feeling was! It is a known fact that witnessing has a great value in our judicial system; judges deliver their judgment based on witnesses’ comments. But that theory is totally belied during the observation of universe. Many of the stars had no existence and yet they were visible to me. Can there be a bigger mystery then this? My sister-in-law was back in home with a newborn. It was a wonderful feeling to see a cute baby girl. I took her in my arms. She was weighing a little less than 7 pound. I could not resist touching her cheeks. Lo and behold! It all became reddish due to gush of blood wherever I touched. Her hands and cheeks appeared so smooth and silky that it was a new feeling to me. A gentle touch was so stimulating to me that I would like to cherish it forever. I was observing her breathing; that was running deeper and faster. She would barely open her eyes; nevertheless, whenever she opened them I could see her black iris and that appeared most fascinating to me. I took her fingers in my hands and tried to feel them with my closed eyes… and wow! what a stimulating feeling it was! Life is indeed full of mysteries! Every day, it brings new wonders; one just needs to be receptive. Read More