the hammock

The fabric tucks me in, closing my whole body up into a cocoon, keeping me above the ground, and below the shades of the trees. In this warm day of spring, I lie half awake, floating in this weather that keeps everyone sleepy.

I wonder who created the hammock… Must be someone who badly wants and needs a break from his/ her daily affairs, and wants to keep away from the ground for while.(floating village, siem reap, cambodia)

I used to have bad experiences with hammocks. There was one huge hammock in the holiday house that my big family and I used to go in PD. It was loosely weaved up with thick soft strings that looked like a colorful fishing net, hanging from one pillar to another. I think I was 4 then. I wanted to climb on it like how the adults were doing, but my little limbs went through the holes between the strings and I got stuck. I struggled till I fell to the ground with a clumsy thud, and with my leg still stuck in the net. Didn’t like hammocks.

When my uncle got a new house and installed a hammock in his balcony, I was a little iffy about it already. It was also the hole-y type one, and I fell through the strings that time. Double dislike for hammocks.

Now that I’m slightly bigger… ok, a lot bigger, I can handle hammocks better. The one I’m on is the full-cloth-with-no-big-holes one. I now look forward to nice days like these when I can sit out here with short pants (wooohooo!! Finally I can wear short pants after so long!) and a good book. I usually would end up not reading it. I’ll b finding myself deep in thought. Someone told me thinking alone is dangerous. But dun worry… these thoughts r fruitful ones (I think). As I look at the bird eating a worm above me (yes… right above me), and ignoring the loud buzz from aussie flies, I let my thoughts catch the breeze and swirl around in loose circles, and bouncing back at me with a fresh smile.

As I hang lazily on this red hammock, I quietly and sincerely thank the Creator of such beautiful things around me, for everything I could and could not think of; for designing every intricate creature, outside and inside this hammock. I thank God for His promise of never leaving me, even when I find myself in my little closed-up hiding place, I can never hide away from Him.