Swing life away....
It was the summer of 2015 and I was roller skating around the Denver County Fair, emceeing different stages and contests and I kept rolling by one of the vendors. In their booth they had a variety of beautiful handmade hammocks. Some that you could lie in and some that you could sit in. When my feet got tired from rollerskating all around the gigantic venue, I would stop there to rest and swing.
I fell in love with the hammocks and as the days went on, I knew that I needed to adopt one of the hammocks for my very own. I had dreamed of hanging the hammock in the perfect place, where I could swing life away, dreaming, sleeping, and being in my own little cocoon of joy.
By the last day of the Denver County Fair, I had chosen the hammock that had all my favorite colors in it. I was so excited to hang it up and make it part of my life. Only, that day never seemed to come. I never found the perfect tree, or had the perfect balcony or ceiling to hang this from. Instead, I just carried it in my car, stored it in my closet, and would glance at it and wonder when in the world I could put that to use.
That day came, almost 5 years later (really, 2 days ago) on a spring day in downtown Denver. My boyfriend, Patrick had acquired a couple of shipping containers, and one of those containers had no walls. As we were staring at it, dreaming up possibilities, I looked up and saw eyelets at the top of the container. “I got it! What if the hammock hangs there?” He looked up and agreed, this indeed was a great place for the hammock.
Within the hour, Patrick hung it up and BAM! My dream hammock hung for the first time!
As I sat in the hammock, spun around a few times, and let my thoughts run wild, I felt this moment of peace and contentment. I felt like a caterpillar snuggled away somewhere safe, waiting to emerge. I thought about how we can always have our safe little cocoon to hide away only to later reemerge. We can do that daily if we want to.
My heart feels happy to have this hammock hanging up, even if it’s right smack dab in the middle of the city, there is peace there. And I can swing life away, relish in the peace, and find quiet amongst the noise.
