We were sitting on the front porch as the storm came through this evening. We saw the distant flashes as they peeked around the house. The wind started to pick up and the sky grew darker and darker. After a spell, the rain started to drip and finally it came down in droves, drenching the edges of the porch and sending us inside.

When we were little we lived in an old farm house that had a stereotypical front porch. We would spend our summer evenings sitting on the porch watching the cars pass and the storms come through. We were always ready to jump inside if there was a clap of thunder that seemed just a little too close.

What I remember most about those evenings, besides the storms, was the peaceful calm of sitting on the porch with the entire family. There would be moments of silence as we watched the fireflies dance in the yard in front of us. We’d watch the bugs swarm around the nearby streetlight. We’d listen to the crickets as they chirped in the nearby fields.

I’m thirty years removed from those summer evening, but nothing makes me happier than spending the evening sitting on the front porch with the people I hold dearest in the world.