When Dolphins Smile

Fifteen years ago I wrote Running with the Dolphins which is somehow still in print all of this time later. It is a snap shot of life on Tybee Island as it was then. A great deal about Tybee has changed. The Desoto is gone and the Sunday night talent show with it. Shorty’s, the Amusement Park, and a dozen other favorites. For some reason 16th Street became Tybrisa Street. The Beach Bums have all gotten old. The list goes on.

Yet much remains the same. Tybee Parking Services is still staffed by Nazis. Roma is still old. Johnny O is still … well I’ve never really been certain exactly what Johnny O is. Tybrisa Street (formally 16th Street) is still the Combat Zone! Doc’s Bar! And the beach! And the Ocean!

The Ocean more or less remains the same, dominating the planet and occasionally flexing her muscles to remind us all of how powerful she is. But the beach changes a little every day while somehow remaining the same every day too. It’s kind of like our lives isn’t it? We change a little every day but we somehow remain the same. At least most of us do.

Every one of my days begins with a trip to the beach. I am usually running along side of the ocean and I notice the shifting sand with one eye and the majestic ocean with the other. And on special days, I run along side of my friends the dolphins.

Over the weekend, they reappeared after many months of resting in warmer waters. While they have been gone, a great deal has changed in my life, just like the beach, and I somehow remain the same while I am very different. Just like Tybee is not the same as it was neither is my home, though from the outside it certainly seems as it was or from the air the island appears as it always has been.

So I was glad to see them. They only played peek-a-boo, sticking their heads out of the water for a second, flashing a smile with bright glistening grey eyes (I swear Dolphins are the only creatures in the universe that can make grey things glisten!) Then they would descend below the surface only to do it again as I made my way down the beach.

It seemed as though they were toying with me, laughing to one another under the water while they raced ahead of me only to stick their heads out of the ocean, smile at me, and drop back below. I suppose that it could mean that good things are coming. Who knows?

But I love my friends the Dolphins. I still like to run with them after all of these years. They must still like me because they keep showing up and smiling at me. So while my life changes and somehow remains the same at the same time, I pray to God that the Dolphins never leave! They come back when others whom you love leave. I think that they still love me. You can never be sure anymore, but their smiles remind me of happiness. And I want happiness again.