alive day
n.— «To the 39-year-old Mayer, Alive Day is April 25, the anniversary of that awful day in 1969 when, as a corporal in the 25th Infantry Division, he stumbled upon a booby trap in Vietnam that set off enemy mortar fire and blew off both his legs.» —“No Small Celebration” by Jack Eisen Washington Post Apr. 27, 1985. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
When a teenager went a week without talking as part of a school project, he noticed a surprising side effect: Instead of rehearsing a response to what other people were saying to him, he was focused on listening — and feeling smarter as a result...
Responding to our discussion about thin places, those spots where the boundary between this world and other realities seems narrow or permeable, a listener in Kirkland, Washington, sent us some eloquent thoughts about her own experiences of that...