Monkey Bars

Hanging upside down.

Blood rushing to my head.

Laughing and talking to my friend.

Recess spent swinging from bar to bar.
Looking up at the towering tangle of yellow, green and red metal inspired awe and a sense of danger.
The heights.
The cold sting of steel on warm hands.
I conquered my fears as I climbed and reached, seemingly, beyond my grasp.

Discovering that I could swing backwards into oblivion and that my legs, looped around the bar, would keep me from hitting the hard earth below was a wonder.

I learned the inevitability of "what goes up, must come down"...the hard way, as every child does, climbing on the monkey bars.

Gravity is rarely a friend.