Swimming in the rain

This evening Scott came home and said, “Let’s go for a swim.”  The older girls were ready in under five minutes.  When you live in surf shorts and t-shirts and are used to swimming in your clothes, it doesn’t take that long to get ready.  They left ahead of us, and I waited for the little girls to come home from a friend’s house.  When Mary and Elena made it back, we walked down to the beach to join them, and found we were the only ones on the sand.  The sun has been setting around seven lately, so it was still daylight. The waves had washed away most of the day’s traffic but we could clearly see Scott and Siwa’s footprints.  Jesse’s prints must have dissolved.   In the distance we could discern three lone figures in the water.  Mary ran far ahead of us calling out to them and ran splashing into the water, and into them.  Elena stayed behind with me and said, “Don’t you feel like we’re so lucky to live in a place like this?”  I said, “Blessed, I feel blessed.”  After awhile it started to rain, but everyone kept on swimming.  The water became  a mixture of small choppy waves, and little pinging splashes on the surface.  The sky grew a little darker, even the air seemed gray, but still warm and soft.Finally, Scott called to the girls and we headed home.  Jesse said, “If only every day was like today.”