Day 217 The Raft

August 11, 2015

Day 217

Jesse, Geoffrey, and Tyler, Denmark, ME: The Brown's Home

I watch three boys on a raft playing in the rain today and my heart is happy. This is how life should be lived, outdoors. They are on and they are off and they are on and they are off and it is laughter and raucous and water everywhere. The rain is falling enough to make it fun but not enough to limit visibility. They are rough housing, they are investigating, they are under the raft, they are diving off the raft. They are being boys.

I have to be with them. The bathing suit comes on and I go out. The water is cold and I reconsider until I hear Geoffrey tell his cousin, "I am going to get my mom."  My sons know I love to play and if they are not embarrassed by me, their mother, and my son Geoffrey is swimming in to bring me out, then I am not reconsidering, I am swimming to the raft.

The rain keeps falling, little balls of white on the surface, it is mesmerizing. It makes the time in the lake enchanted. My mind is present and story telling. Only I know the stories. There is a little mouse who came into my mind last night. He travels and explores and his bathing suit is adorable. I need to flesh him out and give him a name. I see him in the lake near the raft and he gives me a "thumbs up" in his nonchalant way indicating familiarity and a desire to get to know me. I'm in.

I come back quickly to the boys. The goggles pull their faces into nerdish forms as they dive down investigating the brown array of lake stuff below the surface. Below the surface holds mystery and a call to discover. Not for me, I do not want to know. Soon it is only Jesse and me. The older boys head in to shore, they have been out forever. But Jesse, to have his mom out in the water to play, he knows he wants to take full advantage of this moment. And we do.

We, Jesse-fish and Momma-fish,  swim silly. We swim hand in hand. We dance and twirl. The goggles pull our faces into beautiful masterpieces, no mirror would view my image and what I do not know is not going to hurt or distract me! I am Marla Mermaid, blithe, beautiful and able to move with ease through the smooth waters. I am free, completely. This is life at best, life as all of us know it before we emerge to land, before our first cry.

He swims underneath me on his back. We swim hand n' hand like a three legged race. We call to the loon couple on the lake. Jesse does his wolf imitation, so good. I do my loon imitation, a better one than Kathryn Hepburn in "On Golden Pond." The loons beckon the call and move closer and closer to us diving down and popping back up. All of a sudden, I am a Loon whisperer and researcher. And that little mouse is on the lady loon's back. This time he is looking straight ahead in full command of his transport.

We swim in to shore. We soggily walk up to the porch with the rain on our backs and the cold air on our face. Inside we are warm and full of visual memories that will last us a lifetime. This is how life should be lived, outside.

Denmark, ME The Brown's Lovely Home