I Was Going Through Old Photos...

...and came across this one which I thought I had lost. This is me in 2004 when I went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. There was a shore excursion in Puerto Vallarta which promised "swimming with dolphins" and, as a life-long lover of dolphins, I couldn't pass it up. The facility was called Dolphin Adventure Nuevo Vallarta. After arriving and changing into swimwear, all of us visiting from the ship got into the salt-water pool which we shared with two dolphins. We were allowed to grab ahold of their dorsal fins and let them pull us through the water. I would've paid twice as much to have that much fun! Toward the end of our time there, we posed for photos while being "kissed" by a dolphin.

Years later, I was informed by a shaman that my power animal was the dolphin. I wasn't really surprised since I've loved dolphins ever since I devoured every episode of Flipper, which was a television show from the 1960s about a friendly dolphin's interactions with a human family. When I was in the water at the facility, I felt such a sense of love and peaceful calm from the dolphin as he pulled me through the water. Dolphins seem to love humans and humans seem to love them. There's just something special about that relationship. 

Just seeing that photo reminded me just how much I enjoyed being in the water. It has literally been years since I last went swimming. So today I joined the local YMCA which has two pools. I still walk every day for exercise but decided that exercising in water may very well be more beneficial especially for this old and broken body. It gets me back in the water anyway. So I'll see how it goes. Hopefully I'll go on the regular.