by Valerie Preston

Created on: August 12, 2008   Last Updated: September 26, 2008

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29553903@N08/

Dancing with Lizzy

To me, Life is like the song of a dolphin, indecipherable but amazingly joyous, and deceptively simple. My inspiration for living is like that song, but I didn't understand that until my senior years, age 60 to be exact, when I held the fins of a Dolphin named Lizzy and danced in the water with one of the sweetest creatures on earth, while she smiled! The exhilaration I knew was unbounded and unbinding. What did Lizzy get out of it? Her basic needs for food were met, delivered as one fresh fish for doing her trick. Still, this intelligent creation emanated joy, singing a new song to my heart as she swam away.

I am living my "second life". My first one was a series of mistakes that brought on my ruination. My second life is what I call these senior years. I am not old yet, and I likely have lots of time left to live this wondrous life of peace. This is my second chance at a time when I finally know what I wished I had known back then, which is to delight in the simple things and never worry. Devoid of luxuries but meeting my basic needs, my spirit is now set loose to soar. I have a basic underlying peace. I think anyone can find it at any time in life if they try, because I have nothing extraordinary but I have everything I need to know joy. My dance with Lizzy taught me that.

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