swing life away

When I took photos at the park on Saturday, I really wanted to swing after I was done. The park didn't have a swing set, and neither did the other park in town that I usually shoot at. Colour me disappointed. So yesterday after work I made it a mission to find a swing set.

Swings always feel like freedom to me. I jumped off the swing set to look at the photos I took, and I pinched myself because I forgot how slightly terrifying it is to jump off, but so incredibly satisfying it is when you stick the landing and don't fall on your face. Life seems kind of like that, that moment you're about to jump but you're not 100% you're going to make it. After last week, Unafraid made me excited to take chances. So I wanted to swing.

At one of my parent's friend's houses, I had a swing made just for me. They lived on a farm, and they hung my swing from one of the high tree branches right where I could watch all the "moo-cows" grazing in their pasture. My dad used to push me for hours on that swing when I was little.

Swinging will always remind me of my friends from middle school. We each lived within close vicinity of a park, so we would always just meet at the swings. We pumped our legs higher and higher and sang this song at the top of our lungs. To this day, I still remember all the lyrics.

As I grew up, swinging got me through some tough life stuff. My friends would always pick me up, we'd drive to one of the elementary schools or the parks and just swing and talk through everything that hurt. (And then we'd go spinning on the merry go round until we were more dizzy than vulnerable)

It felt really good to be free for a while today. I need to remember how therapeutic swinging is.