the gift

The hammock swing project is complete! Ha-lle-lu-jah! I took matters into my own hands. Yesterday I recruited the assistance of Mike Signorini, our assistant food service manager and my neighbor, to help me drill a hole in the top beam of the swing structure. Right after work he brought over a ladder, drill and drill bit. Three items plus five minutes and the project was complete. As soon as the parts were assembled, I lowered myself into the fabric swing. I misjudged the span of the fabric. The result was me spinning 360 degrees with the hammock in the clutches of my fists as the swing flipped over itself. It was a whirlwind! In a matter of seconds I was laying on my back in the mud. I'm still not really sure what caused this precisely, but Mike thought it was hilarious. I'm okay, no worries though my shoulder is pretty sore today. I came home right after work today to enjoy the swing once again. It was awesome. I had music from my computer, a book, water and wheat thins. The weather was cool, crisp and breezy. It was the perfect fall day. Occasionally a leaf from the backyard would fly up and stick to the rope strands of the swing. Every time this happened I was startled because I thought it was some sort of rodent or bird attacking me. But every time it was only a leaf.

It occurred to me while I was hanging in the hammock swing that I was in fact hanging there. I thought of how much trust I had at some point decided, subconsciously of course, to put in this structure. I looked at the tethered rope, carabiner, bolt/screw thingy and wooden structure. All of it working together allowed me to hang there without a care in the world. I also thought about how this had cost me nothing and I'll probably have it my whole life. I hope I do. The whole thing was a gift from people that I love. Thank you all for making this possible... you know who you are...