Up in the Air So Blue

When I was a kid I had a favorite poem, The Swing, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Back then I could often be found in the backyard giving the swingset a workout, usually while singing my favorite church songs at the top of my lungs. Childhood joys are so simple, aren't they? Now, decades later, some things haven't changed. I still love to go up in the air so blue, but now I drive a car to the top of the Smokies where I can see over the rock walls to the streams and green valleys below. My feet may be firmly planted on the mountaintop, but my spirit is flying -- up in the air and down! And yes, I'm still singing my favorite church songs at the top of my lungs all the way. Even as an adult, joy can still be simple.

The view from Newfound Gap Road on a sunny, snowy winter afternoon.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
© 2015 Kristina Plaas, All Rights Reserved

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