I got in my car to drive some shirts down to the cleaners for my husband this morning and a couple minutes into my drive decided to turn on the radio. I have not been listening to the radio much the last couple years. Not really sure why, maybe just appreciate the silence of being alone in my car for once. But this time I pushed that little power button in my new Explorer and the world was instantly at my finger tips, or my voice commands, if I so chose. The kids listen to a couple stations that I don’t often frequent, so when the music came on I made some kind of scrunchy face and hit the 107.3 button on my screen. I have been listening to that station since I moved to the East coast 18 years ago. I like the fact that the same morning show voice of Jack Diamond came on to greet me, as it did the first time I ever listened.
Jack was right in the middle of talking about how in the middle of a lot of sad news lately, they were going to pep things up a bit this morning by asking people about their peak life moments. Those amazing moments in life when you felt like everything was right in the world and you were graced with some kind of awesome thing. ”So call in now and tell us about your peak moment,” he announced.
Well without thinking too hard, I dialed. I feel like I have had a peak year, a peak five years for that matter. I have been blessed with some amazing people and amazing happenings in my life lately and if this isn’t peak, I don’t know what is. Yeah, I want to tell Jack about how after six years of training, my son and I earned our black belts in taekwondo together, and how I then went on to publish a book about the experience just a few months after that. People have to hear about this!
So the phone is ringing. For any of you who have called a radio station for something, like to win tickets, you know that most of the time the phone never rings. You just get the busy signal over and over again until you decide to give up or you hear the radio guy answer the winner’s phone call. So the phone was ringing! And then someone actually answered it. Yeah, that girl who was just talking on the radio, it was her! ”Who do I have here?’ she asks. ”This is Laura from Bethesda,” I answer with my heart starting to pound out of my chest. Oh my gosh, I am going to get to tell my peak moment to a prime time morning radio audience, I thought. ”Are you on a speaker phone,” she asks. ”I am talking through my car,” I replied, “so I can be hands free.” ”Can you turn your radio down and switch over to your cell.” ”Yep, okay, I will pull over,” I excitedly say. So then she puts me on hold.
So during the one minute hold time (this felt like one hour) I had my awesome script running through my head…hey Jack, I am fine, how are you? Thank you for focusing on this this morning, what a great topic. Okay, my peak moment was…
Well, I then hit the iPhone button on my iPhone, the one that is supposed to switch you from talking through your nice, new, amazing, Siri-like thing in your car back to just your phone. I lifted the phone to my ear and heard the radio show going on. Good, I was still on hold, now on my cell. Turned the radio off in my car so there wouldn’t be an echo. I listened to some amazing people talk about their peak moments, someone who ran a marathon, actually a couple people who did that. Good, good, when will they get to me?
“Laura from Bethesda, how are you?” I hear finally. ”Hey Jack, thanks for focusing on this today, what a great topic…..” and then I hear, “Laura?” ”Well, I guess we lost Laura from Bethesda, Diane from Arlington, how are you this morning?”
Fuck.
Yes, I actually said the F word out loud to myself in the car. Really? So I could hear Jack, but he couldn’t hear me talking. For all I know, I had the phone on mute or something. You have GOT to be kidding me. The first time I have ever gotten through to a radio station and my super iTechnology fails me. My 10 seconds of fame, gone. Really?
I drove back home from the cleaners thinking. Way too much. The peak moments of my life…being the first one in my family to graduate from college, getting my first job doing what I loved, running a marathon, getting married, buying our first home, having a baby (miracle – more than peak), meeting a true healer and shedding fear, finding my Master and learning a sport that filled me with a passion stronger than anything I have felt before, earning my black belt, finding my voice, writing a book. Hmm.
The moment in the car when I heard Jack hang up on me, maybe that was a peak moment. I realized that there have been several of these moments in my life, and there will be more, and that to try to define myself by any one of them would be, well, unnecessary. The Universe very loudly sent me a message today…don’t define your life by the things you have or the accomplishments you achieve. Define it instead by the way you are able to feel and give away love.
We only truly have the moment we are in. So they are all peak moments. Best not to be hung up on a past one for too long, or spend too much time looking to the next.
Still, it would have been kinda cool to be on the radio.
COMMENTS
This is a brilliant post, absolutely wonderful! I laughed out loud, when I got to the F word! What a wonderful story and how terrific that you were able to take something positive from the whole experience. The only one time that I tried to call into a show was the Dr. Laura show. I was convinced that I would change the way everyone in the world raised their children, if only I could talk to Dr. Laura. I remained on hold for about 1/2 hour and gave up. Congrats for hanging in there! And congrats for having such a terrific sense of humor! You must take after your mother!
Yet and still, sorry the technology let you down.
