With the kind of beautiful abandon, only a girl-child is
able to embody, she leans back in the swing and presses her bare heels straight
up into the powdery blue heavens. Cotton-like clouds appear to be hanging off
the tips of trees, which seem to swirl like the mobile over her baby brother’s
crib. She imagines these wispy puffs to be the shape of a bunny, another one is
a boat with its sail flapping and still another cloud seems to rise like an
angel with feathery wings spread wide.
The sweet scent of cottonwood trees lace the air that
rustles the lace on her cotton dress. Warm summer air rushes across her flushed
cheeks, as it forces blonde ringlets to sweep back. The thick rope that holds the wooden seat creaks
lightly with each pendulum like motion. Surging momentum, inspires her to lean
in, pushing to go higher still.
That’s how I imagine it was that day, for my friend Cherri Putz. We
were at the Jumping Tandem retreat, sitting in a small break-out session, led
by Emily Wierenga. Emily had posed this question: “What are some of your little
girl dreams?” After being prompted to share her response, Cherri turned to face
the room of women, swallowed hard and in her tender voice she shared this
precious childhood memory. “When I was a little girl, I would swing. I
would swing as high as I could and I would tell God that I wanted to swing so
high ….that I could reach out and touch Him.”
-CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST AT JENNIFER DUKES LEE.COM
A special thanks to my daughter Amy, who took these pictures and is always happy to do it.
So often I have an idea of something I want to write and will ask her to help me capture an image. It amazes me how she can come up with them with little effort. The picture of her daughter swinging is a perfect example.
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