This was a pretty full day.   Beautiful.  Warm. Sunny.   And …. well…. just really good.    We all had our own things we were doing.   Mary and Haylee took a dive class together.  Levi and I did a little sunning and shell-hunting.    But mid-afternoon, I had the opportunity to snorkel.  I like to snorkel.

So, off I tread out toward the ocean.  I find a decent place to stand,  about waist deep or so, and begin fixing my mask and snorkel.  Well…. let me back up just a minute.  I can’t see the nose on my face without my glasses.  And of course, you can’t really wear your glasses when you are swimming out into the ocean.  And therein lies the problem when you are trying to fix a snorkel mask.

I was jerking around with it…. trying to get the snorkel attached to the head strap… when something bumped my leg.  I looked down, and saw a beautiful silvery white fish, about 6 or 7 inches long…. circling me.  It was cool.   And then, the next thing I know…. this little fish…. started bumping into my knees and thighs… and rubbing against me legs.  Like a cat.    I laughed out loud… I thought this was so coolio.  But it was pretty relentless.

Finally it dawned on me…. maybe I was standing in its space.  Maybe it had fish eggs around… or something.  So I apologized… and moved away.  I just swam over about 5 or 10 feet.  And then… a couple of seconds later…. guess who came back.  Whitefish.  Or… as I was calling him… Quincy Magoo.

I think he liked me.  Or… like Magoo… he just couldn’t see who he was running into… and thought he had found his long lost mother.  FishGod only knows.

But all that friendly-fish activity, stopped me from the frustration of trying to fix my snorkel.  I have long wind…. and I’m a good swimmer …. so I just put on my mask…. and snorkeled with out the air apparatus.  It was very different, and very fun.  I dove down deeper along the bottom a lot.   Both at the shallow and the deep… I saw some great fish… the entire time I was out.  Very great.

And there you have it.  What could have been a completely exasperating ordeal with the mask and snorkel… turned out to be a completely unique experience.  It was a lot better in so many ways.  That is what I wish I could do in all of life.  Oh….. to let go of expectations, and let moments…. simply be….. moments.   For really, that is all we have.  This little minute, right here, right now.

Thanks Whitefish Quincy Magoo.  Just like the cartoon character of the same name … that short-sightedness turned into great luck.  A good day for sure.

And one of my favorite…. favorite… all-time quotes….