62 replies to this topic

[Justa]

I've learned a few lessons the hard way. When I was about 12 I was late getting home from school. Unlike today, back then you were allowed to discipline children, and trust me, being late was grounds for major discipline. I ran blindly across the street trying to get home. I regained consciousness 4 hours later in the hospital. I ran directly in front of a car and the poor lady didn't have a chance. She hit me square on at full speed. Although not a religious awakening, it changed my parents attitude with regards to me being late. The lady who hit me had the exact same birthday as me. Except she was 60 some years older

Years later, when I was about 17 or 18 I was spring board diving at the local YMCA. I was showing off in front of the teenage girls that were there, and was coming down pretty close to the board. My last dive, I landed head first on the board and crumpled into the water. I wound up with a neck brace for a couple of weeks, and was very lucky I didn't break my neck. Mom always said I was hard headed I went back to diving, and a couple of years later almost did the same thing. But this time I caught the board with my hands and pushed off. I wound up whacking my leg pretty hard on the way by. So, needless to say, my diving days are over, and I have never been on a diving board since.

I've had a few other incidents over the years where I have been electrocuted, in a car accident with a moose, almost broke my neck again body surfing in 15 foot waves in Hawaii, etc etc.

I didn't care. I wanted to experience life to the fullest, and have fun doing it. I never really thought about death or religion.

Then I went to Kosovo, and a little girl put life into perspective for me. Watching her dying and not being able to help her was too much for me. That little angel never had a chance at life. Since then, I still put my whole self into everything I do, but she is always on my mind, and makes me actually think before I do anything.

It doesn't have to be something tragic that happens to you directly to affect you. Sometimes it's what happens to those around us that makes us wake up.

[spooksareus]

Wow Justa, now that is a very heavy and moving story.
Thank you so much for sharing it.
The hair is still standing up from the chills it gave me.
Spooks....

[spooksareus]

I don't know if I should post mine, really, it's a bit personal to me, though I think I've alluded to it briefly here before...But, basically,  I had a suicide attempt interrupted by the spirit of a former suicide anxious to prevent me from doing the same thing.  I still feel depressed at times, but I'm keeping my promise to him to be patient with it...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yosei, very brave of you to share that with us.
I'm very glad your still here.
I get very depressed sometimes now since I
damaged my brain last year.
I have to remind myself that it is the injury
and not what is going on in my life that is the cause.
There are a few people that I call to to hear how much they
love me, and that usually snaps me back.
I'm sending you some love right now,
Spooks....

[Justa]

I had a serious kidney infection as a child which almost took my life, I almost drowned not once but twice in my teens and had a really bad automobile accident in which I almost bled to death, tends to make you reevalute the meaning of life and your spirituality.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Willow,

You forgot to mention the time you jumped from your attic instead of waiting for somebody to get the ladder for you, and you misjudged the distance, and how it affected your short term outlook on Christmas decorations, and your long term outlook on being so stubborn (although we have yet to see any change there)

BTW, this wasn't a secret was it?

Edited by Justa, 30 November 2005 - 01:42 PM.

[Willow]

LOL!!! Well it isn't a secret anymore is it

Yes, I lack grace and the average persons coordination when it comes to...well, everything. *Wasnt even gonna poke at the fact your mother is right, you are hard headed but since you poked me first *

I'm really touched by everyone's experiences and the strength they are showing by sharing them.

[spooksareus]

All right, since I started this thread I should tell you guys about my most recent
experience with near death.

I am a general building contracter and I was re-roofing a house last october (2004)
my partner left a 6" over hang of 30 lb felt over the eve and I stepped on it and plunged head first over the edge.
It did feel like slow motion, and I had enough forsite to realize that hitting forhead first was just wrong!
So, in mid-air I reverse cat flipped and landed on the back of my head onto the pavement. My boot caught on the ladder on the way down and slowed my fall a little. Also, I had my hair in pony tail so landing on the back of my head was some what cushioned.

My aunt is a nurse in an emergency ward. The day after I fell, another roofer fell of of a roof from the same height I did. He wasn't so lucky though, he landed directly on his forhead and died 2 weeks later.

I walked around like a drunk person for 5 months with a hematoma on the back of my head the size of a softball. The first email I wrote after the accident
was 2 lines and took me over 2 hours to write.

I still have some brain damage, mostly cognitive difficulties and short term memory loss. I'm a bit dyslexic now and have to constantly check my writing.
My energy is much lower than it used to be and I have to be very selective about what I spend it on.

I think about the things that took place in order for me to survive the fall and I am gratefull every day.

An interesting side note: I had an aura picture taken a few weeks before my fall and it was a very brilliant green. It has been green every time I've had one taken for the past 20 years. I had another one taken a few weeks after my fall and it was blue and violet with a large white clowd over my left shoulder and head (where I landed)

I'm not saying it means anything but it is interesting. The woman who took it said it was a guardian angel.

The same day I had another one taken from a different person on a different machine and it was pretty identical with the same white cloud. This woman told me I must be healing a big wound to that area of my body. (No, I didn't mention my injury to either of them)

I have learned to take life more slowly and to devote my energy to less but more important things.

Before the accident I was forever spread out thin doing things for everyone I know. Catering parties, babysitting or repairing plumbing etc.

But now I no longer have the energy for that.
The people who really care about me understand that if they want me to do something for them it really needs tio be important, because it doesn't just cost me the time to do the task, it also costs me the 2 days after to recover my energy.

I feel that the fall is a blessing in some ways.
My life is now my own, and I no longer take it for granted.
Nor do I let others take it for granted.

Thank you for listening and for sharing your stories.......

[Yosei]

Yosei, very brave of you to share that with us.
I'm very glad your still here.
I get very depressed sometimes now since I
damaged my brain last year.
I have to remind myself that it is the injury
and not what is going on in my life that is the cause.
There are a few people that I call to to hear how much they
love me, and that usually snaps me back.
I'm sending you some love right now,
Spooks....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks. I was worried afterwards that perhaps I shouldn't have posted. I also have had somewhat of brain damage, having been more-or-less stillborn and the doctors delaying too much over resuscitation, but at least I haven't had the problem of adjusting to it after years of normal life. And I think in some ways it has freed up and forced into use the artistic portions of my brain that don't get used as much by most people. I am very thankful for that, at least, though other abilities suffer in other ways.

[spooksareus]

Yosei, very brave of you to share that with us.
I'm very glad your still here.
I get very depressed sometimes now since I
damaged my brain last year.
I have to remind myself that it is the injury
and not what is going on in my life that is the cause.
There are a few people that I call to to hear how much they
love me, and that usually snaps me back.
I'm sending you some love right now,
Spooks....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks. I was worried afterwards that perhaps I shouldn't have posted. I also have had somewhat of brain damage, having been more-or-less stillborn and the doctors delaying too much over resuscitation, but at least I haven't had the problem of adjusting to it after years of normal life. And I think in some ways it has freed up and forced into use the artistic portions of my brain that don't get used as much by most people. I am very thankful for that, at least, though other abilities suffer in other ways.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm glad you did, here's another hug
Spooks...

[freyjasdottir]

Willow,

You aren't the only clutz so don't worry, maybe we should swap stories sometime when Justa isn't around to tattle. Lets just leave it as I've had two and possible a third concussion in my life.

Spooksareus,

You were very luck, I'm glad to see you're making the most of your second chance.

[Vampchick21]

A close friend of mine committed suicide when I was 17. This lead to a great deal of questioning within myself, because face it, what average 17 year old acknowledges the fact that they are mortal unless it's thrust into their face?

By that point I had already been studying Wicca and Paganism, this experience led me to looking at a great number of faiths and religions. It took me several years to realize that you can't demand the answers. Sometimes they never come while you're in this life. So I think, despite the hurt that's still there, it ended up becoming a pretty postive thing to go through for me.

(and I still feel guilty for yelling at that poor young priest when he couldn't answer my questions. Ech, I was 17, hurt and confused. I *think* he understood....)

[spooksareus]

A close friend of mine committed suicide when I was 17.  This lead to a great deal of questioning within myself, because face it, what average 17 year old acknowledges the fact that they are mortal unless it's thrust into their face?

By that point I had already been studying Wicca and Paganism, this experience led me to looking at a great number of faiths and religions.  It took me several years to realize that you can't demand the answers.  Sometimes they never come while you're in this life.  So I think, despite the hurt that's still there, it ended up becoming a pretty postive thing to go through for me.

(and I still feel guilty for yelling at that poor young priest when he couldn't answer my questions.  Ech, I was 17, hurt and confused.  I *think* he understood....)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is hard to lose people you care about, espesially when you're young.
I had lost 24 close friends and family in between the the time I was 18 through
29 including my best friend, my brother, my grandma and my mother.
It can be a very lonely feeling......

[jacsmith_xxx]

I've learned a few lessons the hard way. When I was about 12 I was late getting home from school. Unlike today, back then you were allowed to discipline children, and trust me, being late was grounds for major discipline. I ran blindly across the street trying to get home. I regained consciousness 4 hours later in the hospital. I ran directly in front of a car and the poor lady didn't have a chance. She hit me square on at full speed. Although not a religious awakening, it changed my parents attitude with regards to me being late.  The lady who hit me had the exact same birthday as me. Except she was 60 some years older

Years later, when I was about 17 or 18 I was spring board diving at the local YMCA. I was showing off in front of the teenage girls that were there, and was coming down pretty close to the board. My last dive, I landed head first on the board and crumpled into the water. I wound up with a neck brace for a couple of weeks, and was very lucky I didn't break my neck. Mom always said I was hard headed  I went back to diving, and a couple of years later almost did the same thing. But this time I caught the board with my hands and pushed off. I wound up whacking my leg pretty hard on the way by. So, needless to say, my diving days are over, and I have never been on a diving board since.

I've had a few other incidents over the years where I have been electrocuted, in a car accident with a moose, almost broke my neck again body surfing in 15 foot waves in Hawaii, etc etc.

I didn't care. I wanted to experience life to the fullest, and have fun doing it. I never really thought about death or religion.

Then I went to Kosovo, and a little girl put life into perspective for me. Watching her dying and not being able to help her was too much for me. That little angel never had a chance at life. Since then, I still put my whole self into everything I do, but she is always on my mind, and makes me actually think before I do anything.

It doesn't have to be something tragic that happens to you directly to affect you. Sometimes it's what happens to those around us that makes us wake up.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you never got elecouted or you would be dead you got a electric shock

[jacsmith_xxx]

Like many people who came to this site . I think most people here are looking for answers as to why . A lot of people here come to question what they belive due to some life altering experence.Mostly things like stareing the Grim Reaper in the face and he smiles at you but does not take you . Or wanting to kill them selves and not suceeding or been in a situtation thinking your going to die which you have no control over or have some one try to kill you It . It would be fair to say it alters the way you think what you belive , makes you question your values and most importantly makes you value your life and that of others . Its about balance and understaning about how fragile life is

If everbody who had a life altering experince and had a lucky escape or many lucky escapes died there would not be many people left on this planet and the ones who were left would have no appretiation of how good life is to live


persoanally i had a few life changing monents but you can find the way though the tunnel if you know where to look .Its in the last place most people look and its very close to you

[Willow]

you never got elecouted or you would be dead you got a electric shock

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jac,

I think Justa was referring to electric shock, which can be fatal but there has been many cases of people surviving after being electrocuted.

Info on Electric Shock

[feusurlaneige]

The 'coon was rabid...and it was chasing my Mom and me and Sam.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is freaky lol! We don't have rabies in australia so its hard to imagine this.What happens if it bites you? Do you get rabies or do you have immunisation for this as kids?