Last summer we bought a new swing for the deck when we had to cancel our vacation plans. I think it might be my favorite thing we’ve ever purchased for the house because it gives me an opportunity to do something I rarely do: sit.
Just sit.
I am often seated, but I am usually engaged in some sort of work while seated. But every now and then I sit on the swing.
Just sit.
The gentle sway of the swing, the slight breeze, and the sounds of the suburban paradise all come together to bring back times I spent sitting on the breezeway of my grandparents’ house with my grandma. My grandma and I were early risers and when my family would visit, I would sit with her on the breezeway in the mornings while everyone else was getting moving in the house (this is what my kid mind remembered, who knows if that’s how it really was). I can still hear the hum of traffic, the soft rustling of trees, and the shrill screech of blue jays. My grandma was a busy lady. She kept the house running and I’m sure our visits made that task more difficult. But when we visited, she and I would sit.
Just sit.
These are some of my fondest memories. The breezeway at my grandparents’ house meant both quiet and activity; solitude and company. No one ever went in the house through the front door when I was there. Everyone came through the breezeway. It was where we would have jars of lightning bugs in summer and where we’d stomp snow off boots in winter and play with cousins in whatever time of year we were there. It was where neighbors would stop to chat as they went by on morning or evening walks. But my favorite thing we did in the breezeway was sit.
Just sit.
When we built our house, we opted not to add a front porch because it was prohibitively expensive and would have been too small to be able to have a swing or rockers. When I walk around our neighborhood, I notice that most of the houses don’t have usable porches (and breezeways are definitely not a thing you see!). Houses now don’t have places to sit.
Just sit.
Maybe they should.
Maybe if there were more sitting spaces we’d all be more relaxed. We’d all have a place to get back in touch with our families, our neighbors, our Lord, and ourselves. The breezeway at my grandparents’ house was unique because my grandpa built it with his dad so it’s not the kind of thing you see in a lot of houses. But maybe it should be. I wonder how many of the issues that seem so impossibly big might be put into perspective if we all learned to sit on a porch or a swing and think and talk and connect. And sit.
Just sit.
