Tell us about a time you couldn’t quite get
your words or images to express what you wanted to express. What do you think
the barrier was? For bonus points, try again.
Gosh, there
have been many times I couldn’t quite match my words to what I felt or wanted
to express. The power of description
using colorful and creative expressions is not my strong suit in writing. I think I’m pretty good at writing with
honesty, with emotion when it’s something I’m particularly passionate about,
with insight at times, but I could never describe in words what it’s like to
stand next to Mt. Hood in Oregon with the Mt. Hood Lodge at my back. There’s no
photography to match the experience either.
I can’t tell you what it’s like to look at Mt. Rainier from a little
known viewing spot across a field of hay bails in mid summer. In fact, the photographs I have of that with
my children in the foreground look fake and photo shopped. There’s truly no words to describe what it
was like to be take those photos. I
would love to accurately portray the glistening, clear blue-green waters of
Kwajalein Atoll or the view of multiple WWII planes dumped and scattered 100
feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, but I can’t. Until you are slowly
descending down, listening to your oxygenated breath moving in and out of my
regulator, wide-eyed and in awe, you will never know what it looks or feels
like to dive in these waters, to experience history in this quiet, water-filled
manner. I wish I could give you a sense
of what it was like to participate in a Balinese purification ritual at a
sacred temple or ride bikes down the mountain after doing yoga at sunrise
overlooking a volcano. How can I
describe what it’s like to ride an elephant in Indonesia or watch a bull fight
in Spain? You cannot judge it until you have experienced it. You cannot know the feelings it inspires until
you have been a part of it. The colors
of life at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge during sunset’s high tide, diving at
Troy’s Coral Head where sharks swim around you like silent cars whizzing past
in a big city, the excitement of a professional hockey game in the magnificent
city of Vancouver, British Columbia, and walking the reef at low tide from one
island to another with the hot salt spray blowing across your skin…these are
all experiences I don’t have the words to match what I wanted to express in the
moment or even today when I remember them.
They are the memories of a life being lived to the fullest, with a goal
of enjoying each and every moment, no matter how small or big, just being a
part of this magnificent world God blessed us with, so get out there and enjoy
those experiences that can’t be described with words or images. Make
indescribable memories for you and your family….enjoy every moment.
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