Where to start -
Day started strangely enough. I was tasked to stain the family house's new fence. Went out, got all the required tools. I received a call from a newish friend - friend of a friend. Her mother was thinking about evicting her. She didn't have anyone really to help out. I couldn't take her in, so I offered any help I could - which at the moment equated to just being there with her. So I dumped my staining mission half-finished and I took her out for smoothies. Fuck yeah.
Afterwards, I was supposed to meet up with friends in Japantown in SF. I was trying to get over 10 people together, and with college age kids and post-uni adults it's like herding cats. My friend wanted to come but her mum was going postal and other aspects of her life were unraveling. I told her to stay at home and deal with her personal life, and come out if she could. Ended up being late - picked up friends, flew into Japantown, got lost, made our way to Golden Gate Park... only over an hour late.
I burnt off what was left of my eyelashes in front of friends. Took video - fire swords, giant poi, we danced! There were quite a few talented fire dancers and new people still excited about learning. Hilarity between people the internet and love of flame brought together. I snarked like an asshole (24 years old and spun fire for over 1/3rd my life) but for some reason people find me incredibly likeable. Maybe it's because I practically melt my face off for their amusement.
We tore off and I picked up a young lady I had talked to from a travel forum; it's the sort of hippie place where you can schedule to crash with virtual strangers or give up your house for strangers to stop by and share life with instead of paying ridiculous fees for hotels. I used to do that sort of stuff all the time - I still do it too. She was from Malaysia, and had a month in the states and 4 days in SF.
Together we went on a quest for crepes but found the crepe truck closed for once, so we hit up Om shan tea and shared the most incredible tea while telling stories and playing chess until midnight.
I dropped half of them off at their houses and bid farewell to the adorable 22 year old Malaysian girl that had stepped into my car with 3 complete strangers.
Then the realisation came to me - I was driving home in heavy fog, blasting Nujabes over the stereo. The music of the dead pounded happily in my ears, telling me a story from beyond the grave. Their happiest moments reverberated in my consciousness - visions streamed past my mind's concentration. I saw kisses, weddings, children being born, sex, being admitted into university, quiet moments shared with loved ones - of old people holding hands, countless others - their stories were one with my life, and mine a mirror of theirs. I could never forget them... and as I passed the hill in Lafayette covered with the remembrance markers of the Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces dead visions of the young and gone left me with one bittersweet tear falling down my face.
Yet seratonin and dopamine flooded into my brain- and a joyous wonder of this amazing life that never stops being amazing because we, together as beings capable of creation, make it amazing - and I must admit to living a charmed life. Regardless of how much pain I feel, how much absorption of others' suffering that I suffer, and my own ego - The entirety of the universe up to this moment, existed entirely to create this moment we now occupy and share. In a flash, it is gone, just as we shall be. But for now, this is our time. Our moment. Our love. Our happiness.
I guess I just want to share it.
EDIT: It was simply magical at 2 in the morning racing down the misty mountains with these thoughts. I was swimming in happy brain chemicals. If there was anyone around to give me a hug I probably would have melted.