Thursday night in Dublin, Ireland was nothing short of magic. As I flew into the Emerald Isle on Thursday afternoon from Rome, I felt the rich hues of green reaching out to embrace me. I have wanted to travel to Ireland all my life. I listen to “trad music,” as my cab driver called it, or to the sounds of bag pipes on St. Andrew’s Day at our school, and my soul moves. It is as if the sound is within me, being heard not through my ears but through my soul.

BWzmFiXIUAArPy0.jpg-largeMy soul moved in Tallaght Thursday night at the Civic Theatre. It is impossible to describe what it feels like to walk out on stage, on to the red dot of a TED stage. Yesterday, I was privileged to make that walk for the fourth time, however, last night was different. As I write this post, I am listening to the same album from Nabiha, Mind the Gap, that I’ve listened to throughout the journey. I met these artists at the airport as I left Austin almost 2 weeks ago. They had just played at the Austin City Limits (ACL) Festival. Their music has moved my soul throughout this TEDx world tour. I listened to it in the green room and in the hallway backstage at TEDxTallaght. It made me dance, move my feet and lightened my heart.

Looking at the tweets after my talk last night helps bring in to relief what I felt on stage. The magic I was feeling was not something I created. It was something that the audience, my fellow speakers, the curators and I shared in together. Screen Shot 2013-10-19 at 5.43.55 AMFor a brief moment, we were all part of the Noosphere together. I’ve read about the Noosphere since my friend, Alex Jadad, introduced me to it. I read about it again about a year ago, when I met my friend, Jennifer Sertl, over Twitter, and again, as I took the train from Raleigh, after meeting fellow speaker, Rick Ganotta, from Duke. But, I’ve always wondered what it would look like.

As I spoke last night, I began to realize we won’t see the Noosphere. We will feel it. I think we’ve all felt it in some way at some point, whether it is art, music, a beautiful landscape or a great meal with friends. I felt it last night; I think we all felt it together. As I shared Kethan’s Story, our journey together, my ideas, and the history of how ideas have spread, I suddenly lifted. It is hard to put in to words, but I wasn’t the one speaking anymore. I may have been saying the words and clicking the slides, but all of a sudden, time was suspended. I think it ceased for all of us in the room. RipplesFor a moment, we were all connected in the Noosphere, brought together by Kethan. We now must simply drop our respective pebbles in to the pond of humanity.

I will cherish this gift for a very long time. To properly say thank you for the gift, I am left with but one word, Namaste. Namaste Brenda. Namaste Trish… and Namaste Dave.