Chelsea Ottaviani-Landscapes of the Sacred- Simple moment shared with everything around me

When my family and I first moved into our house in Rhode Island, there was an old tree in the backyard with two decrepit looking swings hanging from the branches. The seat of the swings were no wider than three inches, and the ropes looked as though they were to snap at any given second. The sight of these two swings not only bothered me, but in a way the were depressing. I looked at these swings as monuments to the child who once loved these swings so much, and now they are just tattered objects of the past. I had had enough of these swings within three weeks of living at this house, so I asked my father to cut them down and build me my own swing. The process didn’t take long, and when it was done, the swings that were once so gloomy were replaced by a single, gorgeous, wide wooden plank, tied to the widest branch of the tree by two yellow ropes. This instantly became my favorite place to be. Every chance I had I was underneath the shelter of the tree, swinging back and forth and enjoying every second of the breeze blowing in my hair. It wasn’t until the spring when this swing truly became a miraculous encounter. I had no idea that the tree the swing was tied to was a cherry blossom tree, and when the blossoms came, I would swing underneath the tree and watch the beautiful pink petals fall to the ground like snowflakes all around me. I felt as though the world around me was sharing this miraculous event as each little petal fell off the blossom, blew in the wind, and slowly drifted to the ground at my feet. Something as simple as a childhood swing connected me to the nature surrounding me, and sometimes I still find myself dreaming of that swing and hoping that there is a child at this very minute rocking back and forth beneath those branches.