Water.

I love rainy days. There is something so refreshing, so peaceful. For me, the rain feels like a comforting blanket, reminding me there are clouds not too far off, some substance between me and an endless eternity of atmosphere and outer space

Today was a great rainy day. Here in the midwest, it rains quite a bit during the summer months. Something I was not used to in drought-ridden California. But the rain in the summer comes for a couple hours at a time, usually in the later afternoon/early evening when a thunderstorm or two rolls through. I love thunderstorms, too, but I don't consider those rainy days. Today, I woke up to gentle sprinkles and the smell of freshness outside. All day, it just kept sprinkling, soft rains, with intermittent strong down pours now and then. Steady, sure, water. Next to my window at work there is a creek that I love watching grow higher and higher as the rain continues.

The funny thing to me about rain is that it always reminds me of swimming (of all things.) I swam for years and years, and probably only rained about 10% of the days I swam. But for some reason, whenever I think about my happiest times at swim practice, I think of days just like this. I honestly don't know why. I just loved swimming in the rain. I can remember long days of school, making my way through giant puddles on the hilly campus at my high school--my jeans soaked up to my knees; hair all damp and curly from the wet. I'd sit in my sixth period journalism class just craving swim practice. It was as if the water was taunting me all day, not allowing me to be fully immersed yet and I couldn't wait to get to the pool. And for some reason, I always remember--rainy night practices never felt very tough. I know we swam the same amount of yardage and worked just hard, but for some reason, I always made my way through those practices with more ease than usual.

I like being reminded of how much I loved to swim. Sometimes I forget what a huge part of my life swimming was. So much of who I am now--many of my friends, even my family--revolved around swimming. I love that I swam and that my sister swam. I love that she swam longer and harder and better than I ever did. I'm very proud of her for that and I think she is a great person for all the effort she put into swimming.

I think anyone who participated in youth sports can relate to what I am saying. Whether yours was a swimming family, a soccer family, a hockey family, a baseball family, a judo family or a mixture of a whole bunch of sports--so much of our foundations are built during youth sports. I love, love, love that about youth sports. And I'm happy this rainy day reminded me of that.