How it felt to SWING as a child
Good Morning, God!
I haven’t thought about swinging for YEARS! But yesterday morning, I went for a walk without taking a key and when Kit left for his 9 mile run he naturally locked up. So, when I came home I was LOCKED OUT! Fortunately, I was walking with a friend who is visiting us — so we just went for a longer walk — up to the top of the street. I suggested we stop at the park at the top of the valley and swing. There was fancy new playground equipment. But NO SWINGS. We completed the walk and I said, “Oh well, let’s go on the swings at the lower park.” I remembered swings being there. GONE!
Ah, yes, God. Children can get hurt if a swing whams into them. Law suits + Insurance = no swings!
I understand all the reasons why. But, the first thought that came to me — after I finally got the ban on swings — was Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem. Will children hear that poem without knowing what it feels like to swing?
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!
My father build a tall wooden swing in our backyard when I was a child and I remember with great fondness the joy of swinging. Up UP UP! Higher and higher until the frame groaned. My grandsons had a metal swing set. Nice, but it wasn’t as high. It wasn’t the same. It’s funny, God, how with all the electronic toys and just plain quantity of toys and stuff that children have today, that I should sit here feeling sorry for them.
Thank You, God, for MY childhood. I was blessed. Indeed, I AM BLESSED!
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
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