Freshman year....it was a little past 4am, and my hard partying roommate had just returned, totally wasted. She stumbled around the room trying to undress...I heard her ...mirirrrrr bilognal yesua neger....but I tried to keep my eyes closed...ignore her. keza...i hear pffssss pfssss...I can't believe she is putting on hairspray at this hour...yichi sekaram… then I can hear her walking to her bed. and getting comfortable. temesgen...I try to resume my sleep. Then something...tickles my nose....i crinkle it...hmm...no....it tickles again....the sweet minty smell of eucalyptus....wiy bahir zafff....memories flood back...my grandmother boiling it and inhaling the steam....i clearly remember er...bowing with a towel over her head..trying. to cure her cold...kiremt...early sunday afternoons when my father would drive us up to Menelik's old palace up in EnToTo...we would park right next to it and sit there...shivering...it's cold up there....but there's always that comforting smell of bahir zaf....looking over the city....he would tell us the most amazing stories up there...ah  ... I was wide awake...thinking I was going crazy...yemin bahir zaf...I'm in a sleepy town in new england...in a room with a sekaram sorority girl....i bolt up....what what?? what the hell was that you sprayed....she wakes up startled....she starts apologizing...sorry...didn't mean to wake you up. what?! ...what was that that you sprayed!!!!...she looks a bit scared....and she reaches over to the dresser and hands me a bottle.....i look at it..."aromatherapy"...it says....how true... I spray it right in front of me and take a deeeeeep breath... oufeeeeyyyy....I feel like I was back home. I am now hugging the little bottle...my roomie looks at me bewildered....and says...hey you can keep it if you want. without a word...I take it back to bed with me....every time the smell faded....I'd spray a bit more....  ah…the peace and security I felt that night....

Lijitu from New York City

My moments in nirvana are tied inextricably with the people in my life — the light (and sometimes the bane) of my existence. I have sharp memories of instances where I wished myself anywhere but here on earth, and instances where I thanked God for blessing me with life amongst those I have come to know and love.

My deepest love is for my grandmother. Her mere presence in my life is like an anointment of hope and light and innumerable blessings. I have two moments I hold in my mind like a fragile gift: Emama holding a small child by the hand and walking with her swaying gait into the rising mists of the morning light. And the soft whirr of the inzirt, Emama sitfetil.

My blessings, outside of my family are the friends I’ve gathered about me over the years (like a thick and comfortable ghabi) and on whom I can depend for sanity during moments of intense chaos. And with those friends, there is a moment, suspended with acute clarity in the time zone of my memory, that typifies for me the meaning of love amongst friends: three of us, playing a simple game of cards over the breakfast table at the home of the parents of one of us, laughing like children, secure in each other’s esteem of one another.

I’ll hold these things dear, unfold them from my memory now and again, then hold them up to the light and embrace them with my eyes.

Yeshi Medhin from Washington, DC

Actually three activities launch me into that never-never land in which one is traveling, experiencing more in spirit than in the physical.

I never realized them for what they were as a child though I can remember as far back as seven when these activities put me in what euphemistically is referred to as "Nirvana."

These happened whenever I went riding, practiced martial arts, or sat down to write.

When I saddled up to go riding I would find the grooming the horse and putting on the Bridle and Saddle, the communication between man and beast, tactile and otherwise would put me in the Zone.  After that it would be an escape as the rhythms of everyday gave rise to the rhythm of drumming hooves.

In the second, whenever I suited up for a martial arts the act of donning the Kimono, the smells and sounds of the Gym going from bantering laughter and noise to utter if enforced silence and quiet.

The third and last is an escape more of the mind than the body, but whenever I am writing I seem to be somewhere else opening successive doors into areas more and more intricate.  Writing helps keeps them familiar and comfortable but in turn fuels even more delving to yet more uncharted depths.

Mesraite Christos

Alright then ... I will start with this disclaimer: "The following statement is by no means to be interpreted as an indication of any significant level of talent or competence in the games of volleyball or tennis.  They may however indicate the level of enthusiasm for said games."  Ok that said here is my Nirvana moment ...

Diving for the ball to dig out an impossible spike in volleyball, realizing I got it when my team mates cheer but having no recollection of how I did it... or ... a (very) rare sequence of lethal backhands in tennis when it feels like I can do no wrong in this world ... these are my moments of Nirvana.

Sinidu from San Francisco

Nirvana ,,,,,hmmmmmmm! That moment when the rest of the world switched to fade mode .... Mine? It happened seven years ago, on my wedding day. It was a very simple wedding ... actually it was unique in a sense ...you see, we did not have any diggis, but we invited our friends to join us at one of the Ethiopian restaurants and celebrate our wedding by paying for their own food and drinks ..... it was a fabulous wedding! ...the moment, the Nirvana ... when I floated to the heavens happened when my husband surprised me by getting up and going on stage to serenade me with poetry…a poetry about his love ...and a promise.

Igigayew Sebhatu from Washington, D.C.

On Nirvana:

I thought immediately of that rare moment when the Muse shakes you awake from your lethargy, and brings sudden order to the chaotic thoughts in your head; mysteriously, you are able to translate those thoughts into the right words....right even when you are the only one who understands them.

Yetinayet from the Edge.

If I were given another chance, then I wished I lived again my childhood life. I never understood then the meaning of the song "Ere lijoch lijoch eniCHawet beTam kengedih lijinet temeliso aymeTam." I wish I did, so that I would make an extra effort to enjoy it even more. I remember each and every day, the things that I used to do with my family, friends, at school...Kezas behuala endatileN because in that case you will have to change the topic: instead of "THE moment you want to hold on for ever," it should
be "THE moment you don't want to remember at all."

Azeb from Arlington

A moment in Nirvana…

At an Ethiopian restaurant in DC with three of my best friends celebrating a job promotion. Abonesh's song "Anchi inat hager ItyoPia" started playing… "tinafiqNalesh yihEn semon-imma"… She's a love affair that will never end… Ethiopia. At that moment, among friends, I fell in love with her all over again.

Seble from New York

I was in the office at 6:00 a.m. and started reading an old Life Diaries from Seleda’s early days… the Gelawdios and Makeda saga… Makeda’s last entry… year 2045 in Ethiopia… Her interpretation of the seven horses… and one of them changed my life…

I have not been the same since.

Debrewerq from Tach Hager

Every afternoon at around 4:30 PM, I get home and open the front door and there is my first son, Noah, waiting for me. As soon as he sees it is me coming in, he comes running towards me shouting "Baba," with his big eyes smiling that exquisite smile of his, runs into my open arms and I carry him on high above my head. For a moment or two, he just keeps smiling at me without saying a word. Thinking about that moment keeps me in a

blissful trance all day long. Nothing I wouldn't give to see that smile again and again and again...

Hyiwot Teshome

Silver Spring, Maryland

My nirvana moments actually are continuous:

Each time my 2 year-old daughter greets me after I've been away from her (whether it's one day or several days away with work) - she'll come running, full speed towards me, arms outstretched, full of genuine glee and pure joy at seeing me, with a shout of "AbatE!!" There is absolutely no feeling that beats that moment in time for me.

Cheers,

Yifatew from Yifat

I meet my nirvana in random, dispersed pockets of human kindness.

I got on the bus the other day having forgotten my bus pass, and without a penny in my pocket. I searched my pockets vigorously for spare change, but came 25 cents short of a dollar. The bus driver, an over-worked middle-aged woman with a thankless job, sneered, but let me in. As I shuffled through the crowd to get close to the exit door, a fist held me. She grabbed arm and slipped money into my hands.

Startled, I looked down, and there, to my left, sat an old, wrinkled caramel-skinned lady, ensconced amid the aggressive crowd, wrapped up in so many layers I could barely see her Why, she must've thought I didn't have any lunch money or something. How motherly, how selfless, how humane

I insisted and gave the money back to her (or so I thought), thanked her profusely and split.

I found a five dollar bill crumpled in my pocket.

Delilah Gorges from New York