Scenes I hope pop up as my life flashes before my eyes. Numbers 1-25:
1. Hank banging a bowl with a spoon on the kitchen floor
2. Cutting the cake with Bryan
3. Hot dog in Reykjavik at midnight, full sun
4. Cracking open a book with my name on the cover
5. Dancing on the bar at the office party
6. Jumping off the high dive terrified
7. Cheering Kazakhstan at the Olympics
8. Writing the very last check on our credit card debt
9. Seeing van Gogh’s Starry Night
10. Starting the conga line
11. Helicopter over Buenos Aires
12. Skinny dipping at night in the ocean, in the lake, in the hotel pool
13. Dancing atop the boat in a thunderstorm in Costa Rica
14. Speaking at a conference for the first time
15. Swimming in the open water with sharks in Belize
16. Laughing as I pushed the baby out
17. Napping on the balcony in the Philippines, warm air on my skin
18. Joining the chorus of hundreds counting down to the year 2000
19. Smoking a Cuban cigar on the balcony
20. Making cotton candy
21. Waking in a houseboat to see the reflection of water on the ceiling
22. Addressing Valentines
23. Haggling with my girlfriend in the Balinese markets
24. Bryan in a giant corndog costume in the Castro
25. Seeing the balloons drop
Tell me about your flashback moments in the comments.
Mighty Girl 
Wow, what a great question. I’ve blogged my answer.
LikeLike
Maggie, what an inspired thread! I hope it’ll be okay to post some now and some later. In no particular order:
– the sound of mockingbirds singing on a spring morning
– my sister and me, ages 6 and 8, holding hands between our beds as we fell asleep
– my mom paying a kid to go to the bottom of the community pool and retrieve my two front teeth when they both came out unexpectedly (age 6), so the tooth fairy could come that night
– the first time my first serious boy friend said, “I love you.”
– any/all the times my dad and I cracked each other up
– any/all time times my dad told me he loved me and was proud of me
– making peanut butter cookies with my mom who didn’t laugh (out loud) when I read from the cookbook that we needed a “spa-TOO-lah”
– my parents giving me my first car, in college, as a thank-you because I had a scholarship and then a job to pay my own room and board
– the night when I was 15, on the lake with family and friends, the first time in my life I was aware of how good I had it right that moment
– having conversations with a chimp in sign language
– my parents surprising me with a “good” guitar after I learned to play on a cheap one
– staying close with D. and his family even after our divorce
– graduating from the police academy (I think I could do a whole list from my 20 years as a police officer)
– choir practices, and I don’t mean church (think Joseph Wambaugh)
– hearing the purrs of any/all the cats I’ve had over the years
– marathon phone conversations with my sister when we lived 1200 miles apart
– being one of four to perform the entire Handel’s “Messiah” in American Sign Language for a church for the deaf (especially remember the “Hallelujah Chorus”)
– the excitement of moving to Florida with J.
– the awestruck feeling I had watching a heron glide up the canal and land on my patio, my first morning in my place in Florida
– my mom spontaneously stopping in the hallway while I was visiting her, to tell me how proud she was of me
– realizing how beautiful it was while interpreting “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” for a community theater production of “Wizard of Oz” and having to make an effort not to get choked up
– watching the famous Key West sunsets…from my office window, reminding myself not to take them for granted
– JP, then 6 (now 25) breaking loose and running into my arms when I arrived at the airport
– the look of delight on my sister’s face when I showed up at her door on a surprise visit from 200 miles away
– the smell of the ocean
– the sound of the ocean… the surf as well as the sound of being underwater
– the feeling of being rocked on the surface of the ocean
– the delight I felt when I saw my sister my parents’ car without any of them telling me she was coming with them for a visit from 1200 miles away
– “Mr. Sandman” by the Chordettes (long family story)
– the feeling of belonging when you work a long time with good groups of people
– realizing I had an aptitude for computers and making the decision to move my career in that direction
– making the decision to move back to my home city to be with my family
– getting home and realizing how absolutely and completely right that decision was
LikeLike
Knowing that the test would be positive, and giggling as I watched both lines appear
Any of the fishing trips I took with my grandparents
After our wedding ceremony, walking out to find a large group of strangers and laughing as they all burst into applause
The ride to the hospital with Kevin and looking at each other as we realized that this was the last time we went anywhere as a family of two
Driving the back roads of Italy by moonlight and a map
Seeing two little heads on the ultrasound screen
Sitting in my apartment realizing that living by myself was a good thing and that I was going to get over him
The smell of lemons as we walked along the path outside Corniglia
The moment after my baby girl was born and I held her and then realizing that I needed to push another baby out
Thank Maggie for the lists. What a wonderful idea.
LikeLike
Starting the conga line
One of my friends once tried to start the conga line. Unfortunately she had one too many drinks and started the line by falling on her face.
It wouldn’t be nice to keep her teasing her about this so we’ll just leave this story where it is at. 😉
LikeLike
This is wonderful! I think I can come up with #78-100 for my previous list (things to experience before I go) by reading the items in this, your list. You are such a help.
LikeLike
Getting to Hawaii by myself and lying in my bunk at the hostel listening to the geckos.
The German couple who requested a picture with us after my wedding in Jackson Square.
The sound of the blues on Beale Street.
The smell of rosemary, lavendar, honeysuckle, and cut grass in my backyard.
Teaching my 1st yoga class.
Completing my masters degree.
Sunsets over the Pacific.
The Mayan ruins.
This was such a great idea- it reminded me that “wearing a size 2” and “having everybody like me” are never going to be on this list, and it really gave me a boost and some perspective. Thanks.
LikeLike
* The first kiss between me and my husband when he kissed my shoulders in my car.
* Skinny dipping in a lake that first weekend of college and ducking underwater to avoid the sweeping lights of a cop car.
* me rounding the corner of the kitchen to run into my father’s crouching open arms @ 5.
* plugging my ears and screaming for my mom from bed when I was scared as a child
* Walking into St. Peters for the first time and being moved to tears
* my first cappuccino
* running to the end of a dock in Vienna to make the camera timer for a picture with six of my best girlfriends
LikeLike
Sitting on my dad’s lap, age 4, “driving” his VW beetle in slow lazy circles around the parking lot next to our apartment building and being allowed to honk the “ah-OOOGAH” horn; the lukewarm wind on my face as I step outside with a cup of tea on a hillside in Galway overlooking the ocean; the way the lush green bushes and trees shocked my system with color as I walked down a dirt road in Kenya; the first time I went out alone after my daughter was born and the feeling of loneliness and longing for her that made me rush back home.
LikeLike
1. Looking into O’s eyes for the first time, and feeling that achingly deep connection that is true love.
2. Waking up in C’s arms the first morning
3. The feeling of Junie, snuggled in a ball under the covers
4. Sitting in our house, completely empty, just after we first bought it
5. The pride I felt when my mother framed one of my high school watercolors and hung it in her bedroom
6. C scooping me up and carrying me away from our wedding, then tripping on all the tulle
7. C reading me pride and prejudice, complete with voices, during the miscarriage
8. eating silver dollar pancakes with my father during our saturday morning tea parties
9. Being so homesick when my parents came to visit me in Italy that I slept in their bed, and they didn’t even question it
10. Drinking Italian hot cocoa
11. That sweet sleepy early morning nursing in bed, and then cuddling all together and falling asleep again
12. The first time he slept through the night
13. My mother-in-law politely telling me that the gladiolas were on fire
14. Losing my little plum tomato baby
15. O belly-laughing at Junie for the first time.
16. My first orgasm (obviously)
LikeLike
I don’t have children, and I’ve only come remotely close to getting married once before realising I was making possibly the biggest mistake possible…At 26, single, and almost finished with a degree I’d take any of the following in no real order as a flashback-
– The first time I performed CPR on a real person and then lived
-My best friend of 20 years looking at me as she pushed out her first and both of us completely cracking up
-The complete serenity of holding my grandfather’s hand when he died
-Telling a nice man who stopped to rescue me from a flat tire, that I actually had just finished changing it myself, and the look on his face, when I was 16
-Bottle feeding a new calf on my uncle’s farm when I was 10, getting knocked over by the head butts, and then snuggling up with the calf when it was through
-Kissing a Manta Ray
-Watching a storm roll in off the Sea from a beach hammock in the Dominican Republic
-The feeling of the sun on my face and knowing that I had a second chance when I walked out of rehab
LikeLike
Realizing that despite everything, he was still in love with me.
LikeLike
These are all so beautiful they are making me cry.
LikeLike
– The way my daughter leans in with her mouth open when I say “kiss kiss”.
– My dog rolling around on his back in the grass.
-The first time my husband told me he loved me.
– Sitting on a rocking chair, drinking tea, over looking a lake in the Catskills.
-The calmness I felt as I watched the chaos around me seconds after my daughter was born.
-Swimming with dolphins in the Florida Keys and the look in their eyes.
-The moment my dad told me that his dream had come true.
-Watching my husband receive his medical school diploma.
-Standing back and taking everyone in, dancing and laughing at our wedding.
-The way my husband looked that night, standing in the rain
LikeLike
I’m only 26, haven’t been married, haven’t had kids, and haven’t ever really been in love. I look forward to all of the great things in front of me, but if my life ended before then…
-Lying in a hammock for hours out in the chill grey January day by the lake at Lake Austin Spa during the day I spent there as a 21st birthday present.
-Walking in the woods in Montana at daybreak taking pictures of the mist in the valley below the mountain.
-Realizing my life was nothing like I had always wanted it to be and how happy I was about that.
-Waking up late, naked, warmed by the sun, and thinking I was a mermaid for a minute before my brain woke up.
-Knowing how very loved I am.
-Playing cards in a breezeway in Monterrey, Mex. with college friends
-My dad crying through a wedding when I was 18, because he realized it was only a matter of time
-Long walks in Eastern Europe
LikeLike
“Napping on the balcony in the Philippines, warm air on my skin.”
You totally should! Bring lots of sunblock though. And I’m gonna repeat my durian offer. 🙂
LikeLike
– Seeing my sons playing together
– Seeing our second youngest son spot his older (the eldest) brother in the school playground, call his name and run to him as if it was a whole lot longer than six hours since he’d last seen him
– Seeing our second oldest son walking out from school singing and dancing to himself
– The way our youngest son crinkles up his entire face when he smiles
– My husband’s embrace
– Tying up the leather face mask my husband wore as part of a bondage outfit at a friend’s 30th
– Flying back into Sydney after being away and seeing the glistening harbour, Harbour Bridge and Opera House below
– Seeing each of my four sons for the first time
– How my husband randomly sends me text messages telling me he loves me
– My kids’ reactions as I walk through the door from work
– Getting a new job
– San Gimingnano, Luca, Assissi – how I felt like I was home
– that feeling immediately after you’ve given birth … that you are invincible, soaring, woman.
– how good that first bite of chocolate tastes and feels in your mouth when you’ve been craving it all day.
LikeLike
Number 12 was fabulous.
My fear of feeding sharks was numbed by the multiple glasses of wine and my enthusiasm over the phospheresence (so butchered the spelling, sorry) created by a naked swimming body. It was lovely.
LikeLike
I too, love your lists. I am surprised by the number of people who talk about watching loved ones take their last breath. Those moments are too painful for me to ever want to relive them when the things you can relive are finite (if that makes sense). I guess I can’t find the joy in that kind of closure yet. My list would include lots of music and laughter in different forms, I think.
LikeLike
Turning the corner on our first date and realizing that I was looking at the man that would make me believe in love at first sight.
Dancing on stage with my father to Little Feat at his wedding
Watching my little sister sing for the first time
Chinese fire drill on the best country ride ever
12/23/2006, the day I freed myself
Maggie, I am a long time reader and I love, love, LOVE your stories! I am going to make a full list of my own to publish. Congratulations on all that’s good in your life, Hank is a little dreamboat, good work!
LikeLike