The weirdest thing that ever happened to you?

[Bad Things]

OK, I'll share my story with you.

 

It happened back in May 2003, when my family and I were living in Washington State, near the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

 

One Sunday morning, I planned to go hike one of my all-time favorite mountains. Dog Mountain.

I left the house in the predawn, drove up the gorge, and arrived at the trailhead just as the sun was rising.

 

After about a half an hour of hiking through dense pine forest, I heard some loud crashing and bashing in the brush ahead of me, below the trail. I stood my ground and smacked my hiking stick against the nearest tree, to scare away whatever was down there. The crashing continued and got closer and closer when all of a sudden, a huge brown bear burst out of the the trees and stood right in front of me on the trail. He looked right at me, and finally ran away up the mountain. It was incredible! I've always had an afinity with bears and have seem a few in the wild, but nothing like this.

After I caught my breath, I continued hiking.

One thing that Dog Mountain is known for, is its incredible display of wildflowers, and after another hour of hiking I emerged from the trees and found myself in one of the most gorgeous surroundings that I've ever seen. (The upper 1/4 of the mountain was just covered in solid flowers. I've never seen anything like it before.)

When I finally got to the summit, I saw that there were already a couple people there that came up from the other trail. I didn't want to crowd them, so I left the summit and walked a distance through the flowers and found a private spot, away from the trail, where I could sit and have a bite to eat.

I sat down and looked across the gorge. The snow covered peak of Mount Hood was directly in front of me, with a waterfall down below, in the gorge. Incredible.

 

(Side note... a month or two before this, I began experiencing a bad back, so took the advice from a friend and began doing yoga. Something that I didn't expect from Yoga, was that it kinda opened up a spirituality in me that I never had before. I don't understand how or why, but it did.)

 

All of the yoga information that I read, mentioned the importance of meditation which I've never done before, but I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to try. So I did.

There I was, on a mountaintop, in a field of flowers, when I opened up my soul for the first time and truly gave thanks. It was unlike anything I've experienced before. It wasn't like praying in church. It was direct, powerful and real.

When I finally broke out of my prayer/meditation, I composed myself and again took in the surroundings.

I took a sip from my water bottle and when I put it down, I noticed a little yellow thread of fabric by one of the flowers by my feet. Not really thinking about it, I reached for the thread to pick it up. When I did, I felt a resistance.

Sure enough the thread was coming out of the ground.

Huh?

I pulled on it a bit harder and felt like it was attached to something in the soil, beneath the flower.

Huh?? What could this be, I thought, a message? With my "prayer experience" just having happened, I was, too be honest, a bit frightful.

 

I pulled harder on the thread until it began lifting something from beneath the flower. I kept on pulling until out came a clean, folded up square of fabric.

My heart almost stopped.

I slowly unfolded the fabric and was blown away.

 

There I was alone in a field a flowers, near the summit of Dog Mountain with a Tibetan Prayer flag in my hand.

 

How it got there, I have no idea, but it was surely meant for me.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Bad Things

[bbb]

Wait, that's where I lost my Tibetan prayer flag

[Bad Things]

Wait, that's where I lost my Tibetan prayer flag

Finders keepers!

[bbb]

BTW, yoga was what first got me going in spirituality, too

[bbb]

When I was able to really meditate great, amazing things would happen. I'd see how some drama played out of the office - without having the info I had at the time. I could see it from an angle that wasn't available to me in real time. Only then did I see what X was saying to Y, and how misperception screwed things up, etc.

 

It's hard to understand what I'm saying, but it was an unreal clarity.

[4merper4mer]

OK, I'll share my story with you.

It happened back in May 2003, when my family and I were living in Washington State, near the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

One Sunday morning, I planned to go hike one of my all-time favorite mountains. Dog Mountain.

I left the house in the predawn, drove up the gorge, and arrived at the trailhead just as the sun was rising.

After about a half an hour of hiking through dense pine forest, I heard some loud crashing and bashing in the brush ahead of me, below the trail. I stood my ground and smacked my hiking stick against the nearest tree, to scare away whatever was down there. The crashing continued and got closer and closer when all of a sudden, a huge brown bear burst out of the the trees and stood right in front of me on the trail. He looked right at me, and finally ran away up the mountain. It was incredible! I've always had an afinity with bears and have seem a few in the wild, but nothing like this.

After I caught my breath, I continued hiking.

One thing that Dog Mountain is known for, is its incredible display of wildflowers, and after another hour of hiking I emerged from the trees and found myself in one of the most gorgeous surroundings that I've ever seen. (The upper 1/4 of the mountain was just covered in solid flowers. I've never seen anything like it before.)

When I finally got to the summit, I saw that there were already a couple people there that came up from the other trail. I didn't want to crowd them, so I left the summit and walked a distance through the flowers and found a private spot, away from the trail, where I could sit and have a bite to eat.

I sat down and looked across the gorge. The snow covered peak of Mount Hood was directly in front of me, with a waterfall down below, in the gorge. Incredible.

(Side note... a month or two before this, I began experiencing a bad back, so took the advice from a friend and began doing yoga. Something that I didn't expect from Yoga, was that it kinda opened up a spirituality in me that I never had before. I don't understand how or why, but it did.)

All of the yoga information that I read, mentioned the importance of meditation which I've never done before, but I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to try. So I did.

There I was, on a mountaintop, in a field of flowers, when I opened up my soul for the first time and truly gave thanks. It was unlike anything I've experienced before. It wasn't like praying in church. It was direct, powerful and real.

When I finally broke out of my prayer/meditation, I composed myself and again took in the surroundings.

I took a sip from my water bottle and when I put it down, I noticed a little yellow thread of fabric by one of the flowers by my feet. Not really thinking about it, I reached for the thread to pick it up. When I did, I felt a resistance.

Sure enough the thread was coming out of the ground.

Huh?

I pulled on it a bit harder and felt like it was attached to something in the soil, beneath the flower.

Huh?? What could this be, I thought, a message? With my "prayer experience" just having happened, I was, too be honest, a bit frightful.

I pulled harder on the thread until it began lifting something from beneath the flower. I kept on pulling until out came a clean, folded up square of fabric.

My heart almost stopped.

I slowly unfolded the fabric and was blown away.

There I was alone in a field a flowers, near the summit of Dog Mountain with a Tibetan Prayer flag in my hand.

How it got there, I have no idea, but it was surely meant for me.

Great story. But don't call me Shirley.

[4merper4mer]

I'm curious about what was behind you. Please share the details with us.

 

i thought I had included a decent amount of detail....but what was behind me, what I turned and ran toward....and into.....was a wall of death that got lowered right into Times Square.....at least i think it was. That is because people started acting crazy around the periphery of this thing and no one came out. I think my act of running into it somehow foiled its plan because nobody else even remembers this and there were a lot of people there. Plus I haven't aged since I destroyed it. I can also control wormals and portholes and stuff.

 

Looking back I think that if I hadn't....or maybe if no one had.....run INTO this thing, it would have killed off our entire world. So you're welcome.

[Bad Things]

When I was able to really meditate great, amazing things would happen. I'd see how some drama played out of the office - without having the info I had at the time. I could see it from an angle that wasn't available to me in real time. Only then did I see what X was saying to Y, and how misperception screwed things up, etc.

 

It's hard to understand what I'm saying, but it was an unreal clarity.

 

 

 

Yeah, following my “revelation” on the mountaintop, I took it as a sign, and attended a series of Tibetan Buddhist classes.

Although I haven’t ever considered myself a true Buddhist, I thoroughly enjoyed the teachings of the Dharma, which struck a chord in me. The complete lack of religious dogma was like a breath of fresh air and a real eye-opener, compared to my Christian upbringing.

 

I understand what you’re saying about meditation.

For years, I would do a daily lunchtime meditation in some of the old-growth forests near my work. Like you, I can also attest that this practice brought me a clarity to things that made me able to do many things that I wouldn’t have been able to do without it. (Our dream of moving to New Zealand had always seemed like an impossibility, but once we made the decision to do it, every piece of the puzzle seemed to simply fall into place. Next week will mark 10 years since we first arrived here.)

 

Sadly, my practice has fallen by the wayside in the last few years, but I’ll try to use this thread as a catalyst to start it back up again.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Bad Things

[Clippers of Nfl]

 

 

 

Yeah, following my “revelation” on the mountaintop, I took it as a sign, and attended a series of Tibetan Buddhist classes.

Although I haven’t ever considered myself a true Buddhist, I thoroughly enjoyed the teachings of the Dharma, which struck a chord in me. The complete lack of religious dogma was like a breath of fresh air and a real eye-opener, compared to my Christian upbringing.

 

I understand what you’re saying about meditation.

For years, I would do a daily lunchtime meditation in some of the old-growth forests near my work. Like you, I can also attest that this practice brought me a clarity to things that made me able to do many things that I wouldn’t have been able to do without it. (Our dream of moving to New Zealand had always seemed like an impossibility, but once we made the decision to do it, every piece of the puzzle seemed to simply fall into place. Next week will mark 10 years since we first arrived here.)

 

Sadly, my practice has fallen by the wayside in the last few years, but I’ll try to use this thread as a catalyst to start it back up again.

 

Thanks for listening to my story.

Didnt read it, was it good?

[Bad Things]

Didnt read it, was it good?

For you? probably not.

[bbb]

 

 

 

Yeah, following my “revelation” on the mountaintop, I took it as a sign, and attended a series of Tibetan Buddhist classes.

Although I haven’t ever considered myself a true Buddhist, I thoroughly enjoyed the teachings of the Dharma, which struck a chord in me. The complete lack of religious dogma was like a breath of fresh air and a real eye-opener, compared to my Christian upbringing.

 

I understand what you’re saying about meditation.

For years, I would do a daily lunchtime meditation in some of the old-growth forests near my work. Like you, I can also attest that this practice brought me a clarity to things that made me able to do many things that I wouldn’t have been able to do without it. (Our dream of moving to New Zealand had always seemed like an impossibility, but once we made the decision to do it, every piece of the puzzle seemed to simply fall into place. Next week will mark 10 years since we first arrived here.)

 

Sadly, my practice has fallen by the wayside in the last few years, but I’ll try to use this thread as a catalyst to start it back up again.

 

Haha - I was going to say exactly what you said in the last paragraph. (The first two paragraphs I know to be so true)........... I still do it every day, but not nearly as good and as long as I used to be able to do it...........This will be my catalyst, too!

 

[4merper4mer]

Another time the sun was seargeen in the morning and I swear I saw a centipede wearing a tuxedo? Ever see that?

Edited September 16, 2015 by 4merper4mer

[Canadian Bills Fan]

I opened this thread....

 

 

 

CBF

[4merper4mer]

Probably the most scared I ever was happened to be the time I got accused of all this crap like I did something wrong. All i did was act normal. The friggin lawyer for the state was a crazy dude and he REALLY brown nosed the heck out of the judge. Big time.

 

They dragged all of these people from my past in and they are whacko. Like my teacher who was a big time wimp. He said that I basically was a punk and he'd like to beat the crap out of me. I was in like the third grade when he knew me. He was real tough....not. He always wanted to act tough but I saw his wife yelling at him one time and he basically curled up in a ball.

[dpberr]

Every year since 2003 without fail, I've had a meal paid for at a restaurant by another patron. I pay it forward immediately because I'm afraid to break the streak.

 

Happens in all sorts of restaurants from chains to diners to sub shops.

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

 

. . . I still do it every day, but not nearly as good and as long as I used to be able to do it...........

 

 

I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once, as I ever was.

[BuffaloBill]

I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once, as I ever was.

I'm confused...

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

I'm confused...

 

[Captain Caveman]

 

Merged version of my weird story:

 

...

 

[BuffaloBill]

Now there is an intellectual powerhouse if there ever was one.