Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2010

A simple swing erases complexities

When we got to the playground at Shelley Lake recently, Laurel immediately headed over to the swings, and I found a spot on a nearby bench.

I noticed that another mom had snagged one of the swings and was swinging almost as high as my daughter.

At this point, the open swing next to Laurel began to taunt me. I quickly decided not to worry about what other people thought and headed for the open swing.

As soon as I got high in the air, I had the urge to jump out of the swing like I used to do for hours when I was a little girl.

I spent a brief moment worrying that I might spend the next six weeks explaining to everyone that I broke my leg by jumping out of a swing, but I pushed that thought aside and jumped through the air.

Seconds later, I found myself sitting on my rear end in the sand and laughing hysterically.

The other mom and I spent the next 10 minutes seeing who could jump higher and farther.

I forgot about my looming work deadlines, the pile of laundry in my bedroom and the fact that I had nothing planned for dinner.

I just swung, jumped and laughed.

As I jumped off the swing for the last time of the day, I vowed that the next time I saw an empty swing on a playground, I would sit down in it instead of heading for the nearest bench.

Read Gregory's entire blog at www.TriangleMom2Mom.com/ users/Jenniferg72/blog.