Joy Is The Right Word

Funny how something as simple as diving can be so powerful.

Last year, amidst all the sadness of going through a divorce, I decided it was high time my children got a fresh perspective, that a little fun was in order. My oldest daughter was away at college but it was my other three (triplets) who needed this more so than her. I wanted to take them somewhere they'd never been before, so I booked a short escape for a long weekend, to the Bahamas. Keep in mind that the Jersey shore was the only ocean these kids had ever seen in their short teenaged lives.

I know that I speak for them as well as myself, when I say that a single stellar memory of that trip will forever stand out. It was the moment right after we had just gone underneath, just seconds into that shimmering sea of turquoise. My three children were floating in a sort of semi-circle directly in front of me, and even though they were all in scuba masks I could clearly see their faces.

I will never forget how each of them looked to me at that moment - each taking in the surreal spectacle of undersea life - hundreds of brilliant-colored tropical fish swirling around us, the gorgeous orange of the coral further down below, the deep clear blue of the water, each of them looking at me so wondrously as if to register "is this for real?"

Joy. That was what we felt together, at that moment.