Happy? Tag! You're it.

Like most of the folks that have been attending the YMCA water class for several years, Louise never imagined that she would still be a regular three years later. What was it that moved her to show up every morning? Was it the fact that she had become the teacher’s pet? Perhaps it was the camaraderie? Maybe it was the handsome lifeguards? Was it something else? Could it be as simple as the glide? “We deserved this. We deserved this. We deserved this. We deserved this.” Louise chanted as she floated on her belly holding her water weights with ease on top of the water. She passed us going the opposite direction with her arms and legs out stretched relaxed. She was doing what our instructor calls, “The Glide.” Louise’s voice was deep and sounded relieved like someone sounds after they have just woken up or were in the throws of an endorphin rush. “Endorphins are released during long, continuous workouts, when the level of intensity is between moderate and high, and breathing is...

She mouthed the words, "Oh my God!” Earlier in the ladies locker room the Brit, Dorothy stood in her black rubber water shoes and her conservative multi-colored one piece bathing suit. “I have this visor but I just hate the way it feels on my head. I’m not sure why I need it exactly?” Raising from the bench another woman moved next to Dorothy and looked at their aging reflections in the mirror. “Wear it. It will keep the sun off your fore head. You will thank me later.” In the pool surrounded by deep water and suffocated by a floatation belt, the added pressure of the black visor on Dorothy’s head was unbearable. Sloshing to the edge she took off the visor and left it there. An hour later bare chested, ripped, tan, life guards were in the pool moving the lane lines. Dorothy smiled to herself, “What a delightful treat.” She felt good all over. She even forgot for a moment about the tighter than tight blue Styrofoam waist belt and the shouts from her instructor, “Hold ...

What if the what ifs come true when we focus on the what ifs we don't want? What we think of most will be. A boy believed he would not pass math and then he would have to go to summer school. He believed that he would most likely flunk middle school and not make it to high school. He did not flunk math. He was told by the school counselor that he passed all his classes. He was told to celebrate. He did not. Disbelief was in his eyes. The last day of school he skipped and did not take a final exam. Because he chose to skip, the school would not allow him to take the exam and they did not pass him. Self fulfilling failure. Yes! What power! "A" students have the same power. They believe and they get what they believe. Indeed, the optimist is right and the pessimist is right.

Yesterday, driving back from the Miami Airport with my in-laws, my Father-in-Law, aka Mother Teresa in pants looked at the phone my husband had just picked up to receive a business call and asked, “Is that a blueberry?” I couldn’t make eye contact with him when I answered, “It’s an IPhone.” Smiling I thought to myself, he’s just so adorable-blueberry, blackberry he was close. Today in the local pool one of my favorite older ladies who’s husband just passed away watched as one of the swim coaches walked by with a large gray rectangle shaped box and asked, “Why does she bring that heater to the pool?’ Again, I found myself smiling. I thought, it does look like a heater; but, it’s a time clock. One of the other ladies in our water class filled her in. Then there is my Mom. She can not say the word “Fajita” to save her soul. She’ll proudly say, “Let’s have Fra -Gee-Ta’s!” We’ve corrected her so many times now that we’ve given up. We just let her say it her way. We call it a Dori-i...