My last day in LA.  I was dropped off at an old neighbor's house to visit.  Diane is almost 80, and we have been friends for 16 years.  It was amazing to see her and catch up, fill her with all the new technologies, philosophies, ideas, people, thoughts.. We walked to Minori for lunch, and I swear, the glow of TED must be swirling around us because the couple next to us offered so generously to switch tables so Diane could better see the bubbles being blown from the bubble machine from her favorite table.  This couple insisted on switching the many plates and half-eaten meal so that Diane's favorite viewing location was ours.  And then we talked with the couple, some TED talk, of course! and when we went to pay the bill, voila, the kind gentleman had paid for us when they left.  Wow!  Everywhere I went, people spoke to me about their life and hopes.  To be clear, I usually meet amazing people, but when you are brimming over with the visions of rainforests and robots, bacterias and viruses, outer-galactic life and deep sea glowing mystery....how can you not engage with everyone about every new medical tool and hopes to start a mentoring program for kids? 

As I sat for a couple hours at LAX waiting to depart, I nearly missed my flight.  Sure, being at 44A rather than 44E had something to do with it, but when this wonderful woman complimented my bracelet and we got caught in a flow of her poetry book nearly finished and her love of painting and desire to start a mentoring program that covers art, science, writing....I suggested she check out TED and the fellowship program.  We talked about "saving the planet" and I told her to please keep me posted and I would love to see where she goes, recommend her for a future fellowship.  Only when the called me to gate 44E, minutes before giving my seat to stand-by, did we depart with super energized hope and possibility.

Getting on the plane I realized some fatigue was with me, but like the young woman in the airport just said, "really, you are older than 25, you seem so happy."  Yes I am happy. 

TED is a manifestation of the interconnectivity of everything.  While there, I was reading the palms of people who have invented things you can't believe! "Raw data" I tell you. Jake Ebert made me cry with the too much beauty of the living Oceans. I am passionate about saving the coral reefs and all that they symbolize--the abundance of life in the sea (www.globalcoral.org).  He and Dr. Sylvia Earle illuminated  that now is the time to know that something can and must be done to ensure that the ocean is not ignored,denied, and destroyed. I saw rainforests being recreated in Borneo, and learned about plants that will oxygenate air in buildings.  Amazing inventions, (love those "Siftables") and impacting moments of spirit when Elizabeth Gilbert tells the truth about inpsiration and creative surges that are not owned, but revealed channeled and enigmatic.  The melding of so much information and human fortitude.  I am certain this is why the simplest task of getting on the plane was challenging.  How to stay grounded when your mind has been blown and you see all the people of the world bringing the hope and prosperity of the globe into 5 non-stop days. 

As a fellow, my gratitude runs over. It was so brilliant to have been swimming in this school of fish because that is what it was: a constant flow from rock to fish to anemone to shark, I always felt that I was floating and knew wherever I hovered in the tangible atmosphere, I was discovering...connecting..  I was breathing (anyone who SCUBAs knows that is the first huge accomplishment when diving: BREATHING in water!)I

When I arrived last night in Monterey, someone getting off the shuttle with me offered a ride.  TED is a beacon and it is giving me even more light to shine--see all that can and might and could be in the world.  Now I go to a funeral to go within for a bit to see the infinite that lies there as well for us all.