I have always enjoyed poems that celebrate the small pleasures of life. Here Max Mendelsohn, age 12, of Weston, Massachusetts, tells us of the joy he finds in playing with marbles. [Introduction by Ted Kooser.]

Ode to Marbles

I love the sound of marbles   

scattered on the worn wooden floor,   

like children running away in a game of hide-and-seek.   

I love the sight of white marbles,   

blue marbles,   

green marbles, black,   

new marbles, old marbles,   

iridescent marbles,   

with glass-ribboned swirls,   

dancing round and round.   

I love the feel of marbles,   

cool, smooth,   

rolling freely in my palm,   

like smooth-sided stars   

that light up the worn world.

“I’m a delicate flower.” Meaning: whatever you’ve asked me to do is too hard, and I can’t/don’t want to do it. Sounds nicer than “You don’t really expect me to help you move that furniture, do you?”

“Pay the love toll.” Meaning: Before I give you what you want/you walk by me/you leave the house, I need a hug.

Hayseed/Nimrod. A hayseed is a person who has done something stupid, but doesn’t know any better. A nimrod knows better, but does the stupid thing anyway. With teenagers around, it’s often hard to discern between hayseed and nimrod behavior.

“Buy yourself a trinket.” Usually said by the lender to the lendee who is returning change after borrowing money. Sometimes we also say this when someone outside the immediate family tries to pay one of us back for something we paid for.

“You kids get off of my lawn.” We say this when we realize we just said something that makes us sound like old fogies. Usually accompanied by shaking a fist in the air.

Family vocabulary makes me happy. I feel more connected in an intimate way to my husband and son, because no one else completely understands the history and emotional content of our words. Sometimes saying a single word in a certain way diffuses tension, making us laugh instead of yell or cry.

Does your family have any words or phrases that serve as family shorthand or inside family jokes?

Currently, equestrian events are the only ones where men and women compete against each other as equals.

The three equestrian sports at the 2012 Olympics are dressage, “Grand Prix” or show jumping, and eventing (also known as three-day eventing).  Each sport has a separate team of riders and horses.

In dressage, horses perform a series of movements known as a “test.” The first two rounds, the movements are in compulsory order. The third round is “freestyle” and set to music. Dressage has been called “horse ballet.” In show jumping, horse and rider must complete a course of approximately 15 fences within a set amount of time. Penalties are assessed if poles are knocked down, a horse refuses a jump, or if the horse and rider do not complete the course within the time allowed. Eventing takes place over several days and includes three components—a dressage test, a cross country course, and a round of show jumping. (The dressage and jumping aspects are completed in the same manner as the regular dressage and show jumping, but at a less demanding level.) Eventing is the triathlon of horse competitions, and tests the horse’s fitness and the rider’s all-round skill.

In each of these sports, team and individual medals will be given out. Two hundred athletes will compete for the six gold, six silver and six bronze medals at the 2012 Olympics.

Riders must be a minimum age of 18 to compete in eventing or show jumping, and 16 to compete in dressage. The oldest member of the U.S. Olympic team is Karen O’Connor, a 54-year-old eventer competing in her fifth Olympics. The youngest is 18-year-old Reed Kessler, part of the show jumping team. And the oldest athlete at the entire 2012 Games competes in dressage: Japanese rider Hiroshi Hoketsu, age 71.

Equestrian events began in 682 B.C. when a four-horse chariot race took place at Greece’s 25^th Olympiad.

Until 1952, only male cavalry officers were allowed to compete in equestrian events.

Lisa Hartel, of Denmark, won a silver medal in dressage at the 1952 Games, despite being paralyzed from the waist down by polio and having to be lifted on and off her horse.

Also in 1952, Foxhunter, the horse that carried Colonel Harry Llewellyn to Great Britain’s only gold medal of the Games (in team show jumping), received a congratulatory telegram from Winston Churchill.

The horses that compete in the Olympics have their own passports. The passports don’t have pictures, but line drawings indicating the horse's identifying features. They also contain a list of the horse’s vaccinations.

Check online or with your local TV stations if you’re interested in taking a peek at the world of equestrian sports (or click here for the best schedule I've found). Eventing finished earlier this week, dressage is taking place now and show jumping starts Saturday. Here’s a quick YouTube video from the eventing competition to whet your interest: 

What’s your favorite Olympic sport?

“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.”

—Iris Murdoch

How will you treat yourself today?

Every life has a series of tides, times of transition and fluctuating circumstances. For example, as children grow up, a parent’s focus changes from the physical care of changing diapers and feeing babies to supervising homework, and on to grilling teenagers about where they’re going and who they will be with. Parenting is a series of ebbs and flows as children’s needs change from one day to the next. Marriages, friendships, jobs, hobbies and interests all have their own rhythms of ebb and flow.

I’ve been thinking about ebbs and flows as my son prepares for his senior year in high school. In most ways he requires little care, and can even be helpful. In others, we’ve had to tighten up certain rules and practices. We’ve also made it a point to spend as much time with him as possible (and as he will allow!) while he’s still at home. In a short time (God willing) he’ll be gone, and we’ll be faced with the complete ebb of our roles as parents.

While this is happening, I’m trying to shift my focus from household responsibilities to writing projects. I’m finding this hard to do because there’s no guarantee my writing projects will be successful (and they’re certainly not contributing to the family finances right at this moment) and it’s easy to see when the bathroom is clean, the laundry is done and dinner is on the table. The problem is, my writing projects will never be successful if they don’t get the time and attention they need to blossom. That time and attention has to come from somewhere, and I can’t (and don’t want to) give up all leisure time, so some household stuff is just going to have to take a backseat.

While I’m learning to cope with the ebbs and flows of life, I’ve found these principles helpful.

Pay attention. What you need, what your family and friends need from you, may—will!—change. Maybe instead of a nap you need a bike ride, or vice versa. Maybe your best friend needs a kick in the pants instead of a listening ear, or vice versa. What was soothing or energizing last month might not do the trick today. As a sailor studies tides, watch for changes in the current of your life.

Go with the flow. Don’t fight the current. Don’t get hung up on what you “should” do or “should” have or “should” want. If you feel strongly that the tide is taking you away from where you want to be, know that new tides will come. The ocean, and your life, is always moving, always changing. Down times give way to up times. Try to keep your head above water and watch for a break in the current. Fighting the tides will exhaust you and can be dangerous. Allow the current to take you. You might end up someplace wonderful.

Float when you get the chance. Slack water, or slack tide, is the moment that tidal current ceases. This occurs just before the tide turns and begins running the other direction. If you’ve been paying attention and going with the flow, you should be able to sense this change and float for a while before flowing off to who knows where. Relax, gather strength and look forward to what’s next. (That’s kind of where I feel I am now.)

Ocean tides are among the most reliable natural phenomena in the world. In life, we are sure to face times of ebb and flow, just like the ocean. How about you? What is flowing into your life? Out of it?

P.S. I’ve had a big uptick in spam lately, so I’m putting word verification on for at least a little while—sorry for the inconvenience!