The Swing

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra"

A few weeks ago, Rob and I were up in Scotland for a long weekend celebrating our wedding anniversary. We had a cabin on the edge of a Loch, and we were incredibly lucky with the weather.

We woke up on Saturday morning and the sun was shining so we decided to go for a walk. We went to the reception area of the place where we were staying, and we were given a map for a short walk along the riverbank. It was a loop of about 2.5 miles, and we decided we would walk it even though it felt a little shorter than the walk we would have ideally wanted to have.

We followed the map and quickly found the river. We walked alongside it for a short while and came to a split in the path. The map we had indicated that we should go right and follow the riverbank however there was a smaller path to the left that looked less worn and curved down as though it would head back to the Loch.

A few people walked past us and followed the path to the right (as guided by the map). In that moment we had a choice. We could follow the guidelines and walk in the footsteps of everyone else completing the same walk OR we could follow our intuition and sense of adventure and go in the opposite direction.

We looked at each other and said “Left?”. The decision was made.

Nothing very exciting happened for the next few minutes. We walked slowly down the pathway and as we suspected, it led back to the Loch.  The pathway continued for a while, and it was lovely to feel the sun on our skin and to walk alongside the water.

Then something magical happened…

We found a swing!

As a kid, one of my favourite things to do was to play on the swing in our garden. I would sit on that swing for hours.

There were moments where I would swing so high that it would almost feel like I were flying. There were moments where I would just sit on it and wind the chains around until they could not wind anymore and let go so that I would just spin until I felt dizzy.

There were moments where I would feel unhappy and I would just sit on the swing in the silence of the garden, alone with my thoughts until the sadness or frustration passed.

I have not been on a swing in years and there, in front of me, on the edge of a loch was a swing. I could not believe my eyes. It took a matter of seconds before I was over to the swing and checking to see if it would hold the weight of an adult.

And then I was on it, without a moments pause.

I held the ropes, walked my legs back and pushed off. I felt the breeze brush past me, and I was swinging! All the muscle memory from when I was kid in our garden in London came flooding back. I found myself leaning back to get momentum and leaning forward to make the swing move higher and higher.

So many amazing feelings and memories came flooding back to me of the hours I spent on a swing, the freedom I felt and the belief that I could fly. I spent a few minutes just swinging backward and forward and simply enjoying the pleasure that this simple thing was giving me.

I slowly came back to the ground and back to reality. It was Rob’s turn. I watched as Rob did exactly the same thing I did and before long he was flying through the air too. It was one of those perfect, unexpected moments of pure joy that life can serve up for us.

It would have been easy to talk ourselves out of having that experience.

We could have chosen the same path that everyone else was choosing and we would not have found the swing.

We could have decided that the swing was a risk because it was meant for children, and it might not hold an adults’ weight.

We could have decided that we needed to behave like adults and walk straight past it.

I am glad we made the decision we did because it was a beautiful few minutes that created a memory that will last long after our weekend away.

After the swing adventure, we continued to walk along the pathway, and we came to an open space where you could jump down to the shore of the Loch. It was beautiful so I jumped down the bank. When I reached the shore, I could see that someone had been really busy creating those beautiful piles of stones that you often see today.

I love taking photos, so I spent a bit of time admiring the stone structure and taking pictures from different angles. It wasn’t until I had started to get closer that I could see that someone had creatively put stones together in two independent piles and then built a bridge between the two that created almost a peep hole through the stones. When you looked through the ‘peep hole’ from a certain angle, it gave a beautiful view of the Loch. It was so creative.

It would have been easy to stay on the upper path and not jump down to the shore.

It would have been easy to just see a ‘pile of stones’ Instead, I got to see something creative that someone had invested their time in that was utterly beautiful.

The final stage of our walk brought us up a pathway that was lined with huge trees. On one side was the Loch and the other, there were incredible trees where you could hear the breeze rustling the branches and leaves. I love trees and especially love the sound of the wind whistling through them. It brings me so much peace and calm to my soul.

We eventually met back up with the original path and followed along the riverside to head back toward our cabin.

There was a final surprise in store.

As we headed back along the path, we were suddenly met with a large tree that had fallen over and was blocking the path. Initially it looked like we were going to have to either try and get over it or crawl under it. As we got closer, we realised that it was not creating the block that we had originally thought it might have. We had to bend down, but we could easily navigate getting under it without having to crawl.

It made me reflect on how many times we think we have run into a problem or believe our pathway to what we desire is blocked and we start to allow out mindsets and emotions to spiral. And how many times do we realise that we have robbed ourselves of peace when the horrors we were imagining never materialised.

Yes, the fallen tree was unexpected. Yes, it looked like it blocked our path. No, it was not the big problem we thought it might be.

We got back to the cabin having done a longer walk than we thought we would get to do (and more in line with what we had hoped). We had an adventure that was unexpected, and we also treated ourselves to a piece of cake that we felt like we could justify based on the exercise.

This short (Ish) walk seemed to offer little promise and yet gave me so much. It could have been a very ordinary walk but I have thought about this walk a lot since we got back because of the richness of the experience it gave me and lessons I have taken from it.

Let me try to summarise them…

Curiosity is a powerful mindset. If we had not been curious about the other pathway, we would not have found the swing.

It is ok not to follow in everyone else’s footsteps and to trust your intuition. Our intuition was not to follow the map and instead to follow the other marked path. It gave us an extended, more beautiful walk with lots of gifts.

If you want to do something, do it. It would have been easy to walk past that swing and to ‘behave like a grown up’. The inner child in me would not allow me to do it. I didn’t care what anyone else might think. In those few moments, on that swing, I allowed my value for freedom be fully expressed. It was pure magic.

We can think that the pathway to what we desire is blocked. I have learned to trust that there will always be a way through and perhaps it isn’t the big block that we think it is. Also, sometimes the block is to put us on the path we are meant to be on.

This walk truly added the extra to ordinary... because we allowed it to. Isn't that the same for life?

p.s. 

Final lesson…every good walk should end with cake.