She out-swam me, the youngest. Wow. I wasn’t feeling like a swim this morning. I did yard work early in the damp cloudy coolness of this 4th of July. Weeded like a maniac, even though I went out thinking I wouldn’t, because of my back. But I couldn’t resist. Frank came to the garden early with me when we first woke up. I knew we’d find the critter in there––assumed it was the ground hog. And, yes, a critter scooted into the squash and hid under the busy leaves. I called Charlie - come quick! And he did! Came running across the yard into the garden. And he did scare the critter out of the squash, and the critter cross the garden and leapt through the fence, right through one of the square wires! It wasn’t a groundhog after all, darn it. Baby bunny! Now, how can I be mad at a young bunny, as I am such a fan of Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit? Well, soon enough the bunny will be too big to fit through the fence. I knew my youngest really wanted a swim to the pump house, so I mustered the energy and we went to my friend’s dock. And it was cool, and we just jumped in. We swam to the pump house and she got there so far ahead of me! How could this be? I saw and felt the full realization of this role switch: my daughter, whom I taught to swim and coaxed into longer and longer swims, into confidence and enjoyment of lake swimming, now is a self-motivated swimmer who is powerful and strong and swimming so much faster than me. When I reached the pump house I smiled and glowed and told her how proud I am of her swimming. And then she thanked me and swam back to the dock twice as fast as I did. I am thinking about how many, many happy swims she has ahead of her, and how she will teach a daughter or son to swim, and take her to swim lessons and swim team and then encourage her to swim around the lake, even if she can’t make it the whole way the first time and has to get in the boat to finish. Last summer, I had many happy swims with her sister, the pregnant one last summer. I see that this will be the summer of swimming with the younger one this year. A strange 4th of July. Moody weather, and I had as many moods as the sky and the clouds and the temperature. I kept getting tired out and then a second wind. Mostly, the swim I pushed myself to take on a tired day gave me energy. And that’s always the way.