There are several swing sets in our neighborhood, and many more we’ve all seen in yards across the city – but so often when you see them, they are lonely and still.
But in the yard behind ours, there is a swing set that belongs to two young sisters – and it is the busiest swing set in town.
It was in daily motion last summer – snowsuited- and- mittened -up -action even all through the winter – and now once again, serious spring fun taking place.
I can tell the way these girls swing that this is a way for them to relax. It’s purposeful – the arc of the swing high, their learned pumping skills strong.
And to watch them – to sense their purposeful energy – is to know the joyful release they are experiencing.
I think this is a reminder for all of us, as busy parents and adults, to find what it is for ourselves that relaxes us- that makes our spirits soar.
Perhaps it is to think back to the time when we were a child, and remember what it was that gave us that personal sense of freedom – and then seek our own “grown-up” version – a version that satisfies and emboldens us by the very act of doing it.
“How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!” Robert Stevenson
