Swinging ...

"We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves

or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when 

we are at play."

Charles E. Schaefer

Growing up in the city, there were a variety of neighborhood parks.  They each offered something different and one actually had caged animals.  I mostly frequented the smaller park which was always low in attendance.   Never would I have to wait for a turn on the monkey bars or slides; nor was there any one to notice me fall from the top of the slide.

This little park was at least two blocks from my apartment building.  I would ride bikes there with friends or wandered there alone.  I was never frightened there nor was I ever bothered by anyone big or small.  The swings were the vehicles I routinely chose to escape reality.

On a swing I experienced the unattached liberation of disconnect; an altered sense of the world around me;  and plenty of space for imagination.  To place my well padded bottom on the hard board seat,  grip sweaty hands tightly onto the chains, and pump my chubby legs to fly higher, all produced my greatest sense of who I most wanted to be!