Indulge your inner child!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers. 

I like to remember when I was a kid and summer was a long, stretched out, luxurious event marked by time at the pool, weeding the garden, snapping bushels of green beans with my mom, morning walks to the library, canning peaches in a house without central air, and afternoons spent lounging in the family room with our room air conditioner cranked on high, a cool drink, and hours to spend in a favorite book.

This is my first week without a school obligation on the calendar.  Monday morning, July 1, I kicked off my month of independence from school with a walk in a neighborhood where my friend and I rarely walk.  As we returned to her car, I coaxed her into a neighborhood park.  She has a grandson so I told her we needed to explore it and see what was there.  Tucked into one corner of the park, not visible from the street, were two swings.  After looking at the play structures, I settled into one of the swings, pushed off, and pumped away.  I convinced my friend to join me, but her halfhearted attempt was explained away by the fact that swinging makes her dizzy.  I was holding my water bottle, but flung it to the ground so I could throw my whole self into the experience.  I recited in my head the words to a favorite poem, "How would you like to go up in a swing? . . ."  I became my inner child as I giggled, pumped ever higher, and longed to fly over the trees and above the water!

I have long lists of things to accomplish in the summer - the boxes in the garage that my husband always wants to get rid off (I have to go through them first), closets to be purged, desks and tables with piles of paper to be sorted and filed, the boxes of stuff I lugged home from school to organize, endless appointments to make, and home chores that get ignored during the school year.  However, I insist that summer fun be a part of each day.  What are you waiting for?  Quick, make a list of ways to indulge your inner child.  Turn to it every day and make summer fun happen!