7 posts tagged “park”

I think I got it, so tell me i f I don't, I need to learn!

We went for a bike ride along the river. here are a couple of photos

I talk a pretty big game, it is time for me to live up to this playful attitude I keep speaking of. The kind of playfulness my soul wants to come out, even though sometimes I just don't feel like it. I took a walk yesterday, and I really do not have a destination in mind, I just go up and down random streets and allies. Just really let my heart guide where I end up. My goal is to be in the sun for at least 20 minutes to soak in some vitamins and get my legs moving in hopes of gaining more energy (the laundry is piling up). So I ended up in a park that I have played in for my whole life. The wading pool, a small cement rectangle dry with leaves in it, I can remember feeling like I could swim in there when I was really just crawling on the bottom. I also brought my nephew there on our Monday we spent together. There are playground equipment not there anymore, deemed unsafe for todays children, would not want them to skin a knee, or bruise a shin or get a goose egg rising painfully from the skull. These things taught us what out bodies could and could not do, anyway, the park. It was empty, the hill I used to roll down is so much smaller that I remember, the smell of Pizza Haven is now replaced by an Italian place, and my favorite thing is still there. The swings.

How free it was to be on the swings, the air rushing by your ears making that thundering sound in your head, the weightlessness you feel just before going backwards, hanging my head backwards to see the world upside-down and swaying closer then far away again, the tips of my long blond tresses grazing the rocks below. Swinging so high you thought you could spin all the way around the bar across the top (thats how the chains got all knotted up there was it not?) No cares in the world, I could just lift my body off of that swing and fly away, If I could just get high enough. I pumped my legs beneath me. Let go of the chains and I was airborne. The ground always felt so cruel below my feet as I landed, I will try again. There were a couple of times I swore I flew, I could taste the clouds in my mouth, I was there, in the sky with the birds and the rain. The clouds are rolling in as I type, a storm and wind are coming my way. This is my last chance to fly before the storm hits, I think I made it.

How are you going to play today?
I think I will make some banana bread.

I went for a walk as usual today.
As soon as I felt the sun on me I felt so alive.
Every step I felt more like a playful fairy than my 34 year old self.
It might have been the sun
or the sound the sidewalk chalk made in my sweatshirt pocket.
Maybe it was the magic the chalk held over me.
I got to the park and started around the path.
Every step sounded like my feet were holding back a little girls giggle.
I smiled wide to myself.
I leaned down and wrote on the path
"you are B (I did not leave myself enough room to write beautiful) Brave"
I walked away feeling lighter, my steps were quick and I bent down again, chalk dry in my hands
"Play!"
I felt like I was getting away with something, looking sneakily around me.
Smiling bigger to myself, feeling even more impish I got on my knees and drew a very large hopscotch
I ran out of orange chalk by writing "jump" at the beginning
My body felt larger than my skin, like I was glowing.
I am halfway through the park now, again I write in blue
"you ARE worth the effort"
More quick steps... tap, tap, tap  go my shoes
Am I dancing? my insides were, my feet were making the sounds
was I giving myself away as the sidewalk chalk graffiti fairy?
" find beauty in everyone, even you"
I find myself by the childrens play area
3 parents watching 5 children, they do not see me
I quickly write "find the child in you"
I take large fast steps away, giggling inside, the giggle I heard before that I thought were my feet
It was me.
My blue chalk almost gone, last one in my pocket.
By the bench I write " you ARE beautiful"
on my way to the start I have enough for one more
"Amaze yourself"
Now I walk around and around marveling at my own playfulness
Jumping the hopscotch all 3 times around
Secretly wanting to see the other people do the same
I was feeling tired, but light, like I could literally float home
So I floated home.
Now I feel really hungry..............giggle

He said " I'm sorry " looking into her tear rimmed eyes.
She looked at him in disbelief.
I walk by unnoticed.
She breathes in rapidly making the sound of a breaking heart with her lungs,
the noise that came out of her startled them both.
He leans into her to comfort.
She does not lean to receive it,
but at the same time allows him to touch her wet cheek with his dirty hand.
They sit in her car, she is behind the wheel.
On the side of the car are several bright yellow smiley faces painted on the windows
they seem to be teasing them, or covering for them, or both.
He leans in further saying her name softly.
He wants her to say something, anything.
She turns her face away from him, looks out her window and wipes the dark streaks below her eyes.
I walk by, this time I am noticed, the car starts.
I look again and they are gone.

I wanted so badly to take a picture of them. Her face was so powerful.