I just loved this email I got from an enthusiastic skipper named Gail. It does a great job of capturing the pure joy and natural high that skipping creates. Get out there and try it for yourself. Skip on Gail!

Hi Kim! I kinda discovvered skipping by accident. I am 48, and an avid hiker. I try to hike local peaks here in San Luis Obispo County, California several times a week. When I hike I am listenig to my iPod with all kinds of great tunes. After reaching the top and taking in views, I start down the trail. All that is normal, but one day, a really great song came on and I started to sort of dance down the trail and fell naturally into a skip.

The feeling was elation; when the trail is steep or rocky, I take short sideways tiny skips...kinda like skiing. And when the trail is flatter, (and maybe it snakes through shrubbery) I skip really big and fast. And the amazing thing is, it really cracks me up! I laugh out loud because it is so much fun! And I love to hold my arms out and flap them like a bird.... and I love to catch "air" ......and I love to bounce off the sides of the trail if it is slanted on one side.....and I love to leap off of rocks.

I simply smile if I pass people who stare... or maybe they see me laugh...I don't care...I 'll bet some folks wonder what drug I've taken! But it has made my hiking experience immensely richer and delightful; I crave the experience and look forward to it. And it is fantastic exercise. When I get to the bottom of the trail, I am drenched in sweat and riding high on endorphins from exercise plus laughter. Had to tell you. -Gail

There's been something special about Wednesdays lately. It was Wednesday last week when Tania and I had our random fireworks skipping experience and tonight I had another truly magical skipping moment.

After work, I met my friend Karen to walk the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral. The labyrinth is a meditative, spiritual tool that pre-dates Christianity....It really helps me quiet my mind enough to get a big picture perspective on what is going on in my life.

Karen and I shared about the intense changes we are each experiencing right now....Me needing to go deeply inward so I can write the book I feel called to write....and her feeling powerfully inspired to step even more fully into her role as an ordained minister. We talked for quite some time and then quietly walked the labyrinth. It felt great to breath it all in.

As I walked to my apartment after saying goodbye to Karen. I heard the voice of a little boy behind me. I thought he was saying, "I got a balloon! I got a balloon!" But then I heard his Dad say, "That's not a balloon, that's a backpack." That was when I realized the little boy was talking to me.

For the past six years, I have carried a bright yellow smiley face back pack nearly everywhere I go. This little boy was mesmerized by it. I asked him if he liked smiley faces and he said that he did. Then he proudly announced, "I have a boo boo." I asked him where it was and he pointed to his knee. Then he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and pulled up his pant leg to show me. He said it happened at his Mama's house.

I ooed and aahed at the boo boo and asked him how old he was. He proudly said "two" and then he started galloping down the sidewalk as he looked back at me. His Dad said, "He wants you to run with him!" before quickly stopping him because a car was coming.

After the car passed, he told the little boy to take his hand while they crossed the street. The little boy held out his other hand innocently signaling to me to hold it. The three of us held hands as we crossed the street, then the little boy was off and running down the sidewalk. His Dad laughed as he started jogging behind him. I naturally broke into a skip. His Dad was clearly a skipper too because he immediately joined me when he realized I was skipping. The little boy was too young to know how to literally skip, but he knew the most important part which was that the three of us were sharing a delightfully playful experience.

Before turning off on my street, I gave the little boy one of my iskip.com stickers and told him I wished there were more people in the world exactly like him! His Dad enthusiastically agreed and said, "Yes, wouldn't it be wonderful!?" Then we were waving goodbye and they were gone.

Random skipping encounters like I experienced tonight are one of my favorite things in the entire world! I hope I don't have to wait until next Wednesday for the next one! :-) Skip on!

There is a skipper in New York named Extreme Gene who has created a short film about his own personal approach to skipping. It's called EXTREME SKIPPING and it isn't for the faint of heart!

I personally tend to be your standard run of the mill skipper (if there is such a thing.) I occasionally throw in a twirl here or a backwards skip there...but for the most part I leap happily from point A to point B and call it a day. Not Extreme Gene. Think skateboarding without the board. Think jumps and other tricks. This dude is extreme.

If you are in the New York area and would like to check out what Extreme Skipping is all about, here's some info about the world premier of Extreme Gene's short film....

EXTREME SKIPPING WORLD PREMIERE

What has people Extreme Skipping from Dayton to Denver? What is behind 150,000 hits, a movie trailer and a groundswell of gremmies sticking 180 Degree Lizzies from Calcutta to Coney Island? What the heck is a 180 degree Lizzie anyway?

Spend an evening with the father and creator of the Extreme Skipping Phenomena, Extreme Gene. There is no better place to learn about it than at The Intrepid Air and Space Museum ( 46th and 12th) on September 27th at 8p.m. Watch a short film that gives us a glimpse into a great American underground extreme sports hero. From "Brand Evangilists" to major motion picture companies, people are starting to pay attention to Extreme Gene. Come and see why for yourself.... "CHECK IT!"

If you can't make it to the event, you can also watch a trailer of the film on Extreme Gene's website. Skip on Extreme Gene! Thanks for all you are doing to spread the good skipping word!

I just had the most magical San Francisco skipping experience and felt moved to share as soon as I got home!

Tonight I went to dinner with a fun group of people who were my coworkers when I worked at The Learning Annex. Five of us had a fun dinner and then my friend Tania offered to drive me home.

Tania is a skip chic extraordinaire...When I first started working at the Annex, the skip had practically left my step...But Tania just so happened to be an enthusiastic skipper herself....She had even emailed me through iskip.com long before I started working there! For her birthday she organized a group skip across the Golden Gate Bridge (The picture above is of Tania and her husband Jason on that day)....This girl inspires me and has totally helped me get my skip back.

As Tania and I walked to her car tonight, we both started skipping which was incredibly fun in and of itself...and then out of nowhere, a huge fireworks show started happening over the Bay, so we rushed over to watch. The fireworks were huge! Bigger than the fourth of July! We oooed and aaahed and hooped and hollered. We noticed that everyone else who walked by seemed unphased by the miraculous show...But not us...We were enthusiastic enough for the lot of them.

A guy on a bike who rode by us cheered and we were happy to have found a kindred spirit. He ended up coming over and introducing himself. His name was Charlie. After we chatted for a while, I pulled an iskip.com sticker out of my purse and handed it to him. His face lit up as he told us how much he loved to skip. Suddenly the three of us were joyously skipping all about as bright, colorful, explosive fireworks filled the sky!! Wow!

It felt like the fireworks show lasted forever. When it was done, Tania and I skipped back to the car. A cop stopped traffic and waved us on, "Only for you Skippers," he said with a smile. The next man we passed beamed from ear to ear....A woman in a large group waiting to board a bus nodded in approval.....It was city skipping at its best!

I am feeling wildly inspired by tonight! I invited Tania to go skipping with me on a weekend day in the city sometime soon so we can create more skipping magic like we experienced tonight. I can hardly wait. Skip on!

Last night I received this email from a skipper in the Midwest. Wow! Talk about a powerful testimony about how skipping can uplift our spirits and change our lives for the better.

I did a websearch for the term: "if I could find just one" .... and somehow found your page. I'm a 49 year old business man, and yes I do skip. Several years ago one of my brothers committed suicide and I went into depression.

After losing nearly everything I once owned because life didn't seem worth striving for, I decided I wasn't going to do myself in the way my brother had and I was too physically healthy to think I might be lucky enough to die soon, so I chose life.I began skipping to force myself up out of the depression I was in, even if it made me look ridiculous to observers. Well, I had nothing really left to lose at the time so it really didn't matter what observers thought or even said.

I want to share that I have done a pretty darn good job of rebuilding my life, and now that I even own a farm I still skip and there are no observers to laugh. I own a construction company and everyone in the local area knows that I work daylight to dark, but what they don't know is that at 5:30 a.m. I am outside skipping, jogging and singing to help to give me the stamina to make it through the frustrations of the day. Well, thanks for your webpage, it means something.

Thank God for answered prayer! I'm back from my 9th Burning Man and am definitely feeling more inspired about my book project and mission of sharing the joy of skipping with the world than before I left.

My experience in the desert this year was a lot more about tears, anger, and emotional upheaval than the glitter, bliss, and euphoria of past years. It began with all of the costumes I had created for the event blowing out of the top of the truck on the way there...and ended with an intense and painful relationship drama that broke my heart wide open.

While the majority of people were taking drugs and going wild out there, I was riding my bike alone in the open desert saying this prayer over and over, "Spirit of the living God work afresh in me. Spirit of the living God work afresh in me. Melt me. Mold me. Fill me. Use me. Spirit of the living God work afresh in me." I guess I shouldn't be surprised that things in my world got shaken up a bit, now should I?!

As I read my pre-burning man post, I can begin to see some method to all of the madness I experienced...Before my intense and trying experience, I was feeling emotionally blocked and like I couldn't access the deepest part of me that I need to write my book and tell my story in a powerful way. I most definitely reconnected with that part of me through all of the emotional intensity of my Burning Man experience...It wasn't pretty or fun.... But it did the trick. Now I am left looking forward to the future with hope and anticipating for what comes next.

This morning I got my butt out of bed early and went to the gym before work. It felt great to start my day with a power skip on the treadmill... and it feels great to be exercising my writing voice through this post. I can feel myself getting my skipping groove back and it feels great...With everything that is happening in New Orleans, my desire to do good in this world is huge....So onward and upward....I can't wait to see what the Universe has in store for me next. SKIP ON!