Scaredy Cat No More!
Those are my feet dangling from that swing! And that's me up there at the tippity top of the log flume! I have been wanting to do these rides for a few years now but have been too chicken sh*t to try them. If Rebecca can, then so can I... so I did. There I am with Becca and my niece Brielle inching my way up Mount St. Helen's in a tin boat with no seatbelt, harness... no nothing holding me on. The higher we get the stronger my legs grip around Becca's and the whiter my knuckles get gripping the sides. Finally we reach the top of (in my mind) Mt. St. Helen's and downdowndowndown we go... my eyes are shut... I shouldnothavedonethis I think to myself as we land with a splash! And just like that it was over. Painless. Even Fun! I want to go again and again and again!
And those are my feet high above... up in these flying swings that look like so much fun. It has looked like so much fun for so many years. I eagerly climb into my swing (with a v. nice tight fitting seat belt!) and leave my sandals by my side. Slowly and steadily we take flight and I am carried upupupandaway and I can feel the wind in my hair and I feel like the little girl in the Robert Louis Stevenson poem called The Swing.
The Swing
by Robert Louis Stevenson
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do! Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide, River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside-- Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown-- Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
Only I am not going down... I am spinning around and going faster and faster andfasterandfasterandfaster and I am being launched thousands of feet into the sky and coming down and going upupup and coming downdowndown down all the while spinning around (whipping around really) ever so quickly and wondering again, whyonearthiamonthisblastedride when suddenly we slow down, way down and I feel like a bird coming in for a landing. And just like that it's all over. And I want to do it again and again! And againandagainandagain... next year. And next year I will try the old wooden roller coaster... and from here on in I will try something new. I will be a scaredy cat no more!