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I’m visiting family in a small town in Ohio. My beau and I stopped at one of the many dollar stores to pick up some badminton racquets. At the front of the store was a big bin of hula hoops. There were big hoops and little hoops. Striped hoops and shimmery hoops. Orange, pink, and lime green hoops.

I don’t know how old you are, but I am a woman of a certain age who clearly remembers being a kid in the seventies and hoola hoops were everywhere.

So I picked one up, stepped into it, and started shaking my hips to get it moving. Ian, my beau, did the same.

No matter that we couldn’t keep ‘em going more than a couple seconds. It was so much fun to be standing in the middle of the store, hooping. So much fun, that we called over the register clerk, who looked to be about 21 years old. “Leslie, come and hula with us!” (She had a name tag, of course).

Leslie, without hesitation jumped right in. And she was pretty good! We all giggled and shook our booty.

An elderly couple opened the door to the store, saw the three of us laughing with our hoops, and huge smiles spread across their faces.

I realized (once again) that it is so very simple — and oh-so-necessary to create a little hoopla in life.

What joy can you create for yourself and others today? Don’t hesitate.

(Now I’ve got to run. There’s a newly-built tree house just waiting for me to hide out in and lob some water balloons on my unsuspecting nine-year-old son.)