Jump for Joy This Summer

We should learn from Cocoa and singleminded pursue the things that bring us joy...

I think I’m one of those people whose mental health is impacted by the weather. Too many dreary days and I start to get antsy. Too many bone-cold days and I start to get fussy. But give me sunshine and some water to sit next to and life is grand.

You know who else loves a good day in the sunshine?

Cocoa Bear.

Cocoa knows when we get bathing suits on that we are going out to the pool. It’s pretty funny. If someone walks by in a bathing suit, she starts hopping around like a goofball. As we get towels and sunscreen, she is prancing around under our feet, trying to nuzzle us towards the back door.

Then the minute we open the door, she is jumping in the pool. And she will stay in the pool for the rest of the day. It makes her so dang happy!

While we are outside, she wants us to throw her ball or frisbee for her. Over and over and over again. It is amazing the stamina she has. Every so often, we’ll hold our hands up and say, “Take a break, Cocoa.” And then no one throws her toys for her for a while.

So instead, she takes he ball or frisbee and will drop them into the pool herself, wait a minute for them to float out to the middle of the pool, and then she’ll jump in and get them. She’ll do this over and over again until someone takes pity on her and throws it for her.

Occasionally, we won’t let her outside when we go in the pool. It doesn’t happen often because it absolutely breaks her heart. But sometimes, I’ll lock her inside so I can float and read without all her splashing. And we usually lock her inside when we have friends over to swim so that she isn’t so splashy.

The entire time, she sits inside the house going from window to door to window, crying. It’s the saddest thing ever and I’ll feel so bad for her until she manages to slip outside while someone leaves the door open for just a split second too long. She then beelines it for the pool and jumps right in if we don’t catch her in time.

The last time she escaped into the backyard while we had people over, we managed to chase her three times around the pool before she had the chance to jump in. That was a big win for her. She swam around for almost an hour because she knew we would put her back inside the minute she got out.

We should all take a lesson from Cocoa this summer and be singleminded in the pursuit of what makes us happy. We should jump joyfully into things that bring us joy and immediately run from anything that gets in our way. We should do the things that we love the most whether other people want to do them with us or not.

Here’s to a summer filled with the things that make us jump for joy!