Happiness: Use It Or Lose It

About the Book

HAPPINESS: USE IT OR LOSE IT is a reminder of a priceless gift we all received long ago, the gift of wonderment with its capacity to explore and savor each and every moment of life. Wonder´s buoyant love of life is ours to use or to lose. Welcome to a soaring reading experience about to lift off from ground zero with the legendary Madam Maria Aberdini, a severely handicapped woman, serving as our pilot and guide. The severely handicapped may be our best role models when it comes to joie de vivre, as this news item attests: "At this year´s Seattle Special Olympics nine contestants, all physically and mentally disabled, assembled for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run to the finish and win. All, that is, except one young man who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back, every one of them. A girl with Down´s syndrome bent down, kissed him and said, ´This will make it better.´ Then all nine linked arms, smiled, grinned,and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood. The cheering went on for several minutes." Here´s to loving life as fully!

About the Author

Dave Loomis lives in Jerome, AZ, a tiny mountainside ghost town where he is known as “Doc.” He earned a B.A. from Williams College, his Master’s degrees from Union Seminary and Harvard, and a Ph.D. from Maryland’s Institute of Human Development. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he has served several churches, been a university chaplain, taught comparative religion, and been a union representative, a day care aide, and a provider for the developmentally disabled. The father of two sons, Dave sees himself as “finishing up life’s mountain climb, at final base camp, “getting my vanishing into thin air act together.