So what was the happiest moment in your life?

[AdamSmith]

One of mine had to be learning to bottom.

 

At age 46. No idea what I had been missing all those years!

[+ Gar1eth]

I'm sorry to read about that. Not to worry you but ever thought he was thinking you were way out of his league? Anyway...his replacement is waiting for you to make the first move...so get on it ! (and I mean that like "get at it"...work on that task...on this board ya gotta be clear or someones mind will think of it some other way)

 

It's never going to happen. I should have known even when I met him.

 

Gman

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

One of the happiest actually came in the middle of sad time. Someone very close to me died, and I was responsible for coming up with a memory card to hand out at their funeral. This person had a lot of personal problems that had plagued them through their later years, but managed to conquer the main one, alcoholism, for which I was very proud of them. She didn't relapse, even in the face of dying.

 

After she died, I sat and struggled to try to remember a couple of things to put on the card because I was pissed that she had let cigarettes kill her. And then my ex suggested "gin & tonic." First off, it's not what she drank, and second, it wasn't exactly the most pleasant of memories to dredge up. But my being pissed at his suggestion opened the floodgates and I spent the next couple of hours alternating between laughing and crying (but laugh-crying) about little dumb things that would suddenly pop into my head about her. And I would quickly jot them down for the card until I had way too many to ever fit on there. It was like having her there with me one final time.

[Newly]

What a wonderful thread. With all that's been going on lately it gets overwhelming. I'm in bed now with the hound snoring away, and it's so cool to see all the stuff that we all have to be thankful for. I moved all over the world growing up so I don't have any long term friends. My very best friend in the world had to move to Atlanta for a job so I am kind of floating around, but reading this has really lifted my spirits. I'm sure I'll "wise" up and become snarky, but at this very moment you all seem like pretty darn special people, thank you all for sharing.

[+ purplekow]

Though we had been together more than a decade, my late wife and I were married in a lavish ceremony at elegant hotel in NYC. Starting to plan the wedding coincided with her being diagnosed with terminal cancer so while planning it, i thought the ceremony would forever be a melancholy memory. It was far from that and seeing her finally enter to walk down the aisle and the unfettered joy in her eyes and expressed in her lovely smile made it the second happiest moment in my life.

 

The one moment that surpasses it, happened during the tasting for the wedding reception. We arrived at the hotel expecting to sample foods in the kitchen or in a small room. Instead we were escorted to a reception room with a single table set for us. We sat and the wedding planner excused himself, while a formally dressed wait staff stood at attention pending his return. The whole setting was out of a royal romance. My soon to be wife and I sat looking at one another in silence for about 10 minutes. For those 10 minutes, our life together was perfect. I have never felt more connected, more at peace or more loving or more loved. When the planner returned, i rose and walked over to my wife and gave her a kiss. That kiss, was the happiest and most perfect moment of my life and my memory of that kiss is so clear, i can taste my wife's lips when i think of it, even now more than a decade later.

 

The memory of that kiss has beckoned me forwarded when i just wanted to drop down and never again move. The memory of that kiss has saved my life more than once and if I am very lucky, that kiss will be on my lips as i leave to join her.

[Rick Munroe]

The first time I got blown through a glory hole.

 

http://donegaldollop.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/glory-hole-stickers-12842-1289431256-0.jpg

[justaguy]

1. In Florence, rounding a street corner to see the duomo for the very first time. It was a jaw dropping moment. No picture could have prepared me for the real thing.

 

2. Climbing to the very end of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. (The last I heard that part of the trail had been closed down.) Not only was the climb an experience, but the view over the valley from the tip of the mesa was like nothing else I've ever seen.

[Phil_musc]

Thank you all for sharing your special moments - it shows me how diverse this group really is. And a special thanks to Purplekow - that was really romantic and totally disarmed me - can't think of anything snide to write in the face of such obvious and beautiful sincerity.

[Professor Mitch]

When my niece was born nine years ago, it changed my life. I never thought we would have a young child in my family with me a "confirmed bachelor" and my brother chasing every female that drew breath. But he fell hard, got married, and quickly had a daughter. She has changed me in many ways, but I will never forget the first time I held her. It was magical. In that instant, I became a better man. That doesn't happen very often to any of us. I treasure every minute with her, because she brings something to my life that I thought I would never have. Sappy, but very true.

[Guest]

Think about it for a while, what was the happiest moment in your life?

 

The day I received my first medical school acceptance letter. So many years of hard work and I knew I finally knew I would have my dream career. Now if you ask me what the most pleasurable moments in my life were, those would mostly involve escorts and some other great sexual experiences.

[Racketjock]

I have two that immediately come to mind: first, holding my godson for the first time; second, standing on top of the Arc de Triomphe, my partner at my side, gazing out over Paris as the sun sets.

[GoodFella69]

The birth of my twin sons was the happiest occasion of my life: July 25, 1995. It's hard to believe they will turn 18 this summer. Yikes!

Taking my first solo flight was probably the second most exhilarating occasion of my life.

 

Goodfella

[+ FreshFluff]

The day I got the fat package, rather than the skinny envelope, from Stanford.

 

Kevin Slater

http://s22.postimage.org/s69ccls81/India.png

[dcguy20]

Taking myself to Paris for my 40th birthday. To this day, the happiest time of my life. That trip was pure joy (and I went by myself, too).

[+ FreshFluff]

Taking myself to Paris for my 40th birthday. To this day, the happiest time of my light. That trip was pure joy (and I went by myself, too).

 

Thanks for reminding me of another happy time. I went to Europe (Rome, Florence, Venice, London and then Cannes for the film festival) on my own when I was about 25. My time in Florence and Venice were the best. I still remember taking a gondola ride at midnight, hearing the sound of the oars hitting the water while we were going through an alley.

 

I take trips on my own often, and I really enjoy it. It's unusual for women to do that, so I get strange looks, but I don't care. (One of my favorite hotels assumed I was a travel writer.)

[Toulouse]

It seemed like a very, um, ordinary moment at the time. I was in graduate school. My boyfriend and I were lying on his bed, not even touching each other, talking about something...I was talking more, he was listening and looking me in the eyes, not moving. I realized that he was the most handsome man I'd ever met, that I truly loved him more than anyone or anything, and that his were the eyes I wanted to look into forever. It wasn't that sexual, lusty feeling, it wasn't anything too emotional, I just knew at that moment that I had found my best friend, a sweet lover and a faithful companion: the love of my life. My soulmate.

 

We were life-partners for 22 wonderful years. Sixteen years since he left this earth, I still miss him every day.

[doitb4ugo]

It took me quite some time to post in this thread. I had been thinking that I have not had a happy moment in my life and preferred it that way....but upon many days reflection, I remembered the absolute exhleration on the birth of my daughter. Being in the delivery room and seeing her for the first time was almost too much to endure.

 

Another happy moment was marching in Boston's gay pride parade last year after having come out to my wife...It was the beginning of my life in a way and at that point I knew what I was going through and what I was putting my family through was the right thing for all of us (despite the sadness and disruption it is causing in our lives).

[RockCreekRunr]

This is a really intriguing question. I've enjoyed reading everyone's responses. For me, no moment compares in happiness to the one when I was told that my little sister and I were both being legally and permanently adopted by the most wonderful, loving foster-parents with whom we had been living for a few months. I was only six years-old but remember my happiness as vividly as if it were yesterday. It was the most significant turning-point in our lives, a watershed moment of relief and exhilaration.