Overwhelming

Have you ever been overwhelmed?  Sure, we all have.  Just the mere mention of the word “overwhelmed” conjures school-age memories of sweating bullets at the midnight hour, while surrounded by books and papers the night before the Big Project is due.  As one’s heart pounds thunderously, dry-mouth is offset only by an intense rush of flop sweats.  As unpleasant as this feeling can be, it is not always brought on by negatives.  Sometimes, life is fortunate enough to hand us moments where the overwhelm is the direct result of something good… something REALLY good… something intensely good piled on top of another good thing, with a whole mess of good-cream on top of that, sprinkled on top with a whole pile of goodies.  Oh, and with a good cherry on top!  That is the happy overwhelm.  Yet, despite the wonderment of it all, the feeling can still be one of near panic.  As one’s eyes gaze across the vast piles of happy, the heart beats tumultuously, and hyperventilation is only a moment away.  Regardless of how wonderful the moment is, you need a minute or so to regain composure and not pass out.

 

A little more than a decade ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Ireland for the first time.  With great anticipation, I looked forward to visiting the National Museum.  The museum houses the greatest treasures of Ireland for the world to see.  I knew standing in front of the building that inside I would wander from room to room to see the Tara Broach, the Shinrone gown, and the Ardagh Chalice among other wonderful, wonderful things.  I would see finds from bogs that boggle my mind (Hey!  I made a funny!)  I would see treasures that have survived war, plague, and famine for thousands of years.  Room by room, I would see them all. 

 

Walking into the main lobby, I was directed towards the beginning of what I thought would be a room-by-room tour.  I walked through the door and saw… EVERYTHING!  In one absolutely huge room, there it all was… all at once.  In individual kiosks, I saw item after item that I had previously only seen in books.  I had studied every photo, but had never had the chance to see it all in 3-D.  And here before me, I saw it all in vivid detail.  A room full of gold items, all glistening and gleaming at once.  My head kept turning as I saw treasure after treasure that I already knew through my studies.  As the tears streamed down my face, my throat began to tighten up.  The glistening of the gold began to shine brighter and brighter, as the room grew warmer, and warmer.  The sheen of the items began to grow fuzzy as my vision grew weaker.  When everything began to spin, and I began to gasp, I knew I had to get out of there. 

 

RUNNING through the lobby, I found myself just outside of the museum again, gasping for breath.  I am not an asthmatic.  I was just… overwhelmed.  I knew I would see in person the items that I had so longed to see.  I just had no idea I would see them all at once, and altogether so quickly.  So much sensory input was more than my brain could bear.  It was too much… way too much.  I was… you guessed it… overwhelmed.

 

Returning to the museum, I made a point to walk through with blinders, sometimes literally covering my eyes from viewing too much so that I could concentrate on the particular kiosk in front of me.  Then and only then did it all make sense.

 

When were you last overwhelmed in a good way?

Old House Geekness!

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We are in the June issue of Victorian Homes magazine.  A TWELVE PAGE SPREAD!!!!

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