Benediction of Dolphins

Dolphins! Every time I see them awe and wonder just bubble up. There's something about sea mammals that just brings me joy and makes me laugh. They seem so similar to us - but their world is the great half-known of ocean rather than land. And they seem to feel the same curiosity about us. I suppose it makes sense - we know the land they only see the edges off.
Yesterday my Beloved and I got some kid-free time and headed to the beach. The school holidays being over we got a long stretch of white sand and surf all to ourselves. Bliss. It's been so long since we got some wave-play. Paddling is great, but its not the same as flipping over waves and swimming open-eyed through salty green.
Just as we were wading in (my beloved squawking with the cold, living in the Islands just plain spoiled him!) we spotted fins in the water in front of us.
For the next few minutes the dolphins slowly arced in and out of the water in front of us. The waves and whitewater caught us up and we couldn't see them for awhile. A sea eagle swooped down to catch a silver fish and a fleet of tiny orange fish jumped from a wave, but the dolphins stayed hidden.
And then, just as we got out we saw them again, still close to shore, still just out past the waves in front of us, slowly arcing in and out of the sea.
And I couldn't help thinking it felt like a benediction of dolphins.