Issue 18 - 1 March 2000
by Diana Waring
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Dear Friends, G'day! This Highly Irregular Newsletter is being written from the ends of the earth. . . the gloriously beautiful, wildly wonderful, fascinating acreage of an incredibly hospitable homeschool family's ancestral home at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. (By the way, Tim and Raewyn Shand, the incredibly hospitable homeschoolers, send their greetings.) As I write, at least one eye is constantly cocked, watching hopefully for the antics of dolphins out in the beautiful bay of the Marlborough Sounds. For the past six months, our homeschooling family has been on an "extended field trip" to New Zealand, where we attended a Youth With A Mission DTS (Discipleship Training School). That in itself was an unbelievably life-changing adventure-filled with unforgettable people and experiences. In addition to that, though, we have also had the amazing privilege of traveling from one end of the country to the other, speaking to homeschooling Kiwi families. The couple who arranged our tour, Craig and Barbara Smith, have done a masterful job of planning the itinerary to introduce both the spectacular beauty of New Zealand AND the warmly welcoming homeschooling families who have hosted us. One of the unexpected joys of traveling here has been the delightful surprises homeschool families keep planning for us, in order to show the wonder and beauty of their native land to these rubber-necking, gawking, thoroughly astonished tourists! One week ago, after crossing from the North Island to the South Island, our homeschooling hosts, Mike and Karen Gray, took us out boating in the Queen Charlotte Sound. They had planned to take us out to an island where all manner of native birds nest under the protection of the New Zealand government, but, after detouring over to a salmon farm (complete with three well-fed seals who had a taste for fresh salmon!) and stopping to observe two waterborne penguins(!!), Mike found out on the radio that a pod of about forty-five dolphins were not too far from our location. Zoom! We were off like a shot, bound for a most amazing experience. Dolphins. . . One of my most cherished childhood dreams was to have my own dolphin. The TV show, "Flipper," was popular then; I lived in Miami, Florida; and our house had a pool. All the ingredients were there, right? It took years for my parents to convince me otherwise. But now, as an adult, it all came swimming back to me. Dolphins!!! All eyes were off the port bow, watching. . . waiting. . . Then, suddenly, THERE THEY WERE! Fast moving and gracefully cavorting, dolphins surfaced in rhythmic intervals all around us as we motored along. Two or more dolphins would swim just ahead of us, acting like organic torpedos, while a dozen others would leap along either side of the boat. Mike told us that dolphins are quite interested in the doings of small boats and the people who inhabit them. Sure enough, the dolphins in front would, while maintaing an incredibly fast pace, turn on to their side, gazing through turquoise waters at the strange apparitions above, then gracefully roll to the other side to round out the view. For those not satisfied with the underwater viewing experience, a bounding leap out of the water afforded a more "up close and personal" perspective. However, looking at humans was not the only item on the agenda that day. There was also the serious business of playing. One young dolphin (deduced by his small stature) was constantly entertaining his mother and himself with "zip-across-the-front-of-the-boat-as-fast-as-you-can," while others were practicing their ballet moves: One, two, three- LEAP together in perfect unison; One, two, three- LEAP from opposite sides in perfect unison; One, two, three- LEAP in threes in perfect unison; One, two, three- LEAP together and OOPS, smack right into each other, and so on. Staying in their midst, we were able to be participants in the joie de vivre (joy of life), the graceful movement, the delicious sense of dolphin fun. They accepted us as an interesting addition to their antics, which made us feel like we were a REAL part of their enjoyment. In fact, there were those on the boat who thought that perhaps the dolphins were putting on part of the show just for us! Ah, the magical moment of dancing with dolphins. . . Several times Mike cut the motor to see if the dolphins would stay and play with us, but they seemed to be more interested in getting to the other end of the Sound. So, restarting the motor, we would be off dolphin racing again. That's when I began to see the joviality, the humor in these magnificent creatures. As they heard the sounds of the boat motor, they would turn and come back to us at a dead "run." Just about the time the boat was ready to collide with them, they would, in the blink of an eye, flip their tails and do a 180. Zoom! Out in front of the boat they would go, letting us know that they were just having a bit of fun. One dolphin, as we came toward it, actually rolled on to its back, then lazily rolled to its side until the boat was just a few feet away. At the last possible moment, the dolphin righted and sped out in front, frolicking with the easy grace of a devoted enthusiast. Then there were the sounds: "Buwf" accompanied with the splash of water as they breathed; "Whompf" as they surfaced and dove; "EEeeuh" high pitched as they sang; And I am absolutely certain there was a lot of underwater "hee-hee"-ing going on as well. Proverbs 17:22 states, "A merry heart does good, like medicine. . ." If this proverb holds true for the animal kingdom as well, then these dolphins were among the healthiest of all God's creatures! Fun! Frolic! As a family!-what a God-given gift! In fact, what struck me in the boat (along with the spray of the dolphins' breath) was that these creatures were created by the Creator with an amazing sense of merriment. It's a tiny, watery reflection of the merriment in the heart of God, dear friends. When folks portray God as ONLY serious and sober, they have simply forgotten to consider the obvious humor and fun expressed in God's own creative way through these generously jovial, stupendously exuberant dolphins. If dolphins display such delightful mirth in their pod families, how much more should we, as people made in the image of God, reflect the resonating joy of redemption in our homeschool families? If Proverbs 17:22 is truly true (which I believe absolutely!), shouldn't we give merriment a healthy chunk of our time? In other words: If dolphins can do it, why can't we? If it's good medicine, why don't we. . . get pro-active? take preventative measures? dose our family with liberal amounts? When my children were little and I had taken on too many outside demands, things got VERY serious around our house. You know the saying, "When Mamma ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy?" Well, they probably got the saying from watching me. When the. . . cares of life (finances, job security, mortgage payments); overwork (from overcommitment); trying-to-fulfill-others'-expectations in parenting, homeschooling, and housework began to overwhelm me. . . all merriment in our family went the way of the dodo bird. Depressed, uptight, "out of it" . . . all are terms to describe what seemed my normal existence. Church on Sunday morning would temporarily lift my spirits-for the hour I sat in the pew. Once home hit, encouragement sank below the waters, and I was stuck with the problems again. Not a healthy plight, right? Fortunately, and by the grace of God, the situation changed. What happened? We simplified our lives, we jettisoned overcommitment, and we began to... well, act more like... dolphins. Reading funny books out loud (like, Hank the Cowdog); spending time playing with each other (board games and physical games); laughing at each other's jokes ("Did you hear the one about the. . . ?") became more the norm for everyday living. My children and my husband were absolute masters at creating frolicking fun in our home-all I had to do was go happily with the flow. This transferred into our time of working together and studying together as well. And, amazingly but Biblically sound, the level of health in our home steadily increased as we took increasing doses of merriment into our hearts. Wish I had seen the dolphins and learned this lesson when I was a young mom... Ah, well. Maybe you can learn faster than I did. From the education I've received from my jovially jocular husband and more than a dozen years of homeschooling three remarkably resilient children, as well as meeting tens of thousands of real-life homeschoolers in our travels around the country and around the world, I can tell you truly that a family which frolics in wholesome fun, regularly doses themselves with kindly jocularity, and seasons the soup of their souls with a liberal dose of godly humor will have the right prescription for a healthy family. That is my prayer for you-fun, laughter, frolicking, humor, playing-in increasing measure. May you and yours enjoy the benefits of becoming increasingly like the dolphins of this story-dancing, as it were, with dolphins-and may it become an integral part of your homeschool curriculum! Blessings, Diana Return to the List of Newsletter Issues

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