Most nights, whether the dogs are with me or not, I open the sliding glass door, go out into my backyard, and go swinging. And all I need are a jacket, sometimes a hand-towel on rainy days, and my iPod Touch paired with blue and pink earbuds.
And if a good song comes on, I start singing while I'm swinging.
To me, this started to be a normal thing for me to do since the summer of last year, because why not? When I was little, I used to come down to the swing set (with only one workable swing) and swing to my heart's content.
So what if I'm in my early twenties and I want to remind myself of the joys of swinging?
To feel that rush of exhilaration every time I swing up…
And that fall when I swing down…
And back again?
Sometimes, I even do it intentionally in time to the music if the beat's just right...
Only now that I'm older, I find myself drifting more and more into my thoughts while I'm swinging, and when I'm listening to music while this happens, I come to have some pretty good ideas for my writing, but I also have moments when I take a look back on myself (especially when a song I strongly connect to comes on), and think of better ways to handle things.
For me, swinging can be a very inspiring and reflective time of the day for me.
So, when my mom tells me to go out with the dogs, I'm more than obliged to go with jacket and iPod in hand, and of course, a towel to sit on for those rainy days…