Frolicking dolphins a reminder to make the most of life’s wondrous moments

As I lie in bed warding off a headache and grimacing at the stark light overhead, I am trying to gather my thoughts to write about gratitude, but the truth is, I’m not feeling very grateful right now.

Perhaps it was because the rain fell all day and the sky was grey, or that a chill has entered my bones, and I am under the weather.

Dolphins frolic in Port Phillip Bay.Credit: Paul Rovere

I know I was grateful a few days ago when my sister and I spotted a pod of dolphins close to the shore in Port Phillip Bay. They were herding fish and sometimes leapt fully out of the water, their sleek bodies gleaming in the morning sun, their movements observed keenly by hovering seagulls.

That day, to see so many dolphins in the bay, was a reminder that, despite the sorrows of the world, life is still full of wonder.

But then the dolphins left, the weather turned bleak, my head started to ache, and I had to slip under the doona.

We all hide to some degree how we might actually be feeling. We do not wish to complain or burden another or bring down the lightness of a conversation by painting a not so rosy picture. Not everyone has the ability to shoulder our sorrows or to lift our hearts with their wit, wise counsel or certainty that all will be well. Such souls are rare.

Reader, I soothed my own unease with a good night’s sleep and by spending time with my family, some of whom have only recently returned from three weeks away. I swept the leaves from the backyard, observing with pleasure that my efforts made a (little) difference.

I had a glass of wine with my mother, and we talked about that rugby player she once dated back in the day. I looked him up on the internet and there he was immortalised in a Wikipedia page. We spoke of her growing up near Bondi, born in the year World War II commenced, and about the barbed wire on the beaches, and the family who lodged with my mother’s family in the rundown house they rented on the hill overlooking the sea. In these conversations, I forgot about the cold and the greyness of the sky.

Mother Teresa’s advice was to be happy in the moment. None of us are assured of tomorrow.

All we have is now.